Fate
by welly1309
Summary: Set just after the destruction of the 5th Angel, Shinji is wounded in an attack receiving life changing injuries leaving Nerv to pick up the pieces, they must find a stand in pilot while making sure the third child recovers enter Mari to shake things up. AU rated M to play it safe.
1. Fate

**Fate**

My first work of fiction proper please note I am not a professional author have no beta reader , and so mistakes will often creep in, standard disclaimer about not owning Evangelion or any characters within, any resemblance to people living or dead is entirely coincidental.

What will the future hold?  
>How will I be rewarded?<br>Have I the right to riches?  
>In a world where there are no prizes<p>

Who makes the clock tick by?  
>When will my fate be ready?<br>Do I get prior warning?  
>Am I told? Are there no surprises?<p>

I have to count my blessings  
>I have to learn my lessons<br>my fate is in the balance  
>I must go on believing<p>

Shiro sagisu, **Fate**

It was twenty past eleven on a Monday night, as operations director captain Misato Katsuragi slouched at the dining table in her apartment, staring at the unopened can of Yebisu beer which she held in her hand, the can was unusual in that under normal circumstances, the beverage within would have been downed in one go by the raven haired twenty-nine year old Japanese woman.

She instead stood up, and moving through the kitchen arrived at the fridge, and there opened the door depositing the can back on the shelf, alongside its many brothers, for a few seconds she stood stock still staring at the fridge door, until a plaintive squawk drew her attention.

Misato looked down at Pen-Pen, the genetically modified hot springs penguin, who up until three weeks ago had been her sole companion, she reached down and ran her hand over the birds frill letting out a sigh, as she knew what had the bird so unsettled, "Don't worry Pen, he'll be ok." She murmured, as much to reassure herself as the bird.

Closing the fridge door, she turned and walked over to the bedroom door on which was pinned a hand written note in the shape of a heart, on the note it read 'Shinji's lovely suite' with little heart shapes drawn on it.

Fourteen year old Shinji Ikari had joined their little family around three weeks ago, when Misato had refused to let the quiet boy live by himself after his first combat engagement, piloting the giant cyborg mecha known as Evangelion, he was she had discovered painfully introverted, and drawing the boy into conversation had been like pulling teeth, he had meekly taken on all the house chores after proving quite inept at paper, scissors, stone, and Misato had to admit the boy could most certainly cook brilliantly, and he was a bit of a neatness freak.

Her gaze slid to his empty bed, and she let out a soft sigh, the boy was lying in Nerv central headquarters medical suite, thanks to what appeared to be an assassination attempt by a disgruntled former section two agent, he was expected to recover, however he had sustained life changing injuries in the attack, something Misato herself was still trying to process.

Intelligence had been received that there was a credible threat to the pilot's safety and section two had been dutifully dispatched to collect Shinji and Rei Ayanami from Tokyo three's high school, Rei had been spared the carnage that was to come, purely because she had been traveling in a separate car behind Shinji's when the attacker had struck.

What no one in the security detail was aware of, was that this was exactly what the perpetrator had planned from the start, the security frequencies for section two had been compromised, and the car carrying the designated Third child was being tracked by a hidden device in Shinji's bag, right into an ambush at an intersection.

A modified black Sedan had t-boned the car carrying Shinji, causing it to spin ninety degree's and crumpling the rear left passenger door that he was sat next to, the windows had shattered in the impact, showering both the boy and the other occupants with glass, it was a testimony to the boys survival instincts that he had ducked down, despite being in what had to have been agony, and in addition to his left arm being trapped in the space between the door and the seat.

His arm, Misato shook her head he had lost the arm below the elbow, despite the doctors best efforts to save it, the lower limb had been pulped in the impact, leaving the boy unable to escape when the attacker staggered out of his vehicle and opened fire with his berretta 92-FS pistol, the one thing the former agent hadn't counted on was one of his former work colleagues, agent Sato of Shinji's security detail. The woman had recovered before her male companions, and scrambling out of the driver's seat of the car had drawn a rapid bead on the man, without hesitation terminating the threat with a single round to the perpetrator's head, as quickly as the carnage had started it had ended, with little fanfare, the only sounds being Shinji's agonised sobbing from within the car.

It had been a minor miracle that the boy had not taken a bullet, fortunately the Kevlar plating on the door did its job despite being weakened in the impact, regardless of everything, Misato knew to be grateful that things hadn't been much worse, they could after all have brought Shinji back in a body bag instead.

The Nerv emergency response team had been dispatched to the scene, and had found Rei in the back of the lead car stroking the boys back and whispering soothingly to him, his right eye was a bloodied mess from a glass shard that had hit him during the crash, just one more thing the boy had lost that day, the surgeons had worked on the boy all through the night to stabilise him, and had even resorted to a special LCL submersion before applying bandages and casts.

Misato turned and watched as Pen-Pen opened his lower fridge compartment, and with one last glance at Misato disappeared inside, both owner and pet had been out of sort's ever since she had received the phone call notifying her of the incident, and informing her he was in recovery, she would be allowed in to see him tomorrow afternoon, although that did nothing to quell the feelings of anger and worry that sat in the pit of her stomach.

Then of course there had been the witnesses to the whole sorry affair, the news channels had been having a field day after photo's had leaked online, the news anchor-man accusing Nerv of being wholly incompetent, and reckless where the pilots safety was concerned, Shinji's status as a pilot was now a matter of public knowledge, much to his father supreme commander Gendo Ikari's frustration, and Misato's concern.

Nerv had been forced to make a public statement denouncing the former agent, and assuring the public that the Third child's recovery and rehabilitation was their top priority, Misato snorted "Yeah wouldn't want your most useful tool, to be out of action for too long now would we?!" She growled, Gendo Ikari saw his son as nothing more than a means to an end, something Misato simply couldn't understand.

When the boy had first come to Tokyo three at the behest of his father, he had obviously been hoping for some kind of reconciliation with the man he had not seen for three years, and who had abandoned him when he was four, instead commander Ikari had told him he would be the pilot of an 80 metre tall cyborg death machine, and without any training had sent the boy straight into battle against one of mankind's most deadly foe's, an Angel.

Understandably Shinji had not been very impressed at being asked to go out, and sacrifice himself in a giant mecha that he had never until then even laid eyes upon, not that Misato with the benefit of hindsight could really blame him.

The Angels themselves, were immense creatures with terrifying and alien objectives that the average member of the public would understand nothing about, save that they were a threat to mankind's survival, however Misato knew the truth of them for she had witnessed first-hand, and survived one of the most apocalyptic events in human history Second Impact.

Fourteen years ago while Shinji had still been in his mother's womb, the first Angel Adam had exploded violently in Antarctica vaporising the continent, raising sea levels, and wiping out half the human race, this information of course was not released to the public, who were simply told a meteorite had impacted Antarctica instead, Misato had survived the disaster only because her father had gotten her into an emergency escape capsule, sacrificing himself for her.

Her fingers traced up to the cross pendant she wore, the last reminder of her father the man she thought she had hated, it had been the last thing he had given her right at the end, before the maelstrom of second impact had claimed him.

At the time of Shinji's arrival in Tokyo Three, Rei Ayanami the First child and designated pilot of Evangelion unit zero was still unfit for duty, indeed Gendo had used the fourteen year old girl to black mail his son into piloting Evangelion unit one, knowing full well the boy would not let the injured girl take his place, it had been dumb luck Misato felt that the boy had won his first combat encounter, unit one going berserk after its pilot was rendered unconscious, and tearing the third Angel Sachiel apart in a ferocious display.

The Angel in an attempt to destroy the cyborg assaulting it, had self-destructed showering the city with its own blood as it's AT or Absolute Terror field had collapsed, the AT field a sort of energy barrier, was the primary reason Nerv were the only organisation equipped to deal with the creatures, conventional weapons were simply no match for the Angels, and unit one had emerged from the inferno with barely a scratch on it.

It was the same technology involved with the maintenance of the giant cyborgs, that was going to assist with Shinji's recovery, the Link Connect Liquid that the pilots breathed to assist with their synchronisation with the Eva's, and which the Eva's themselves where kept immersed in when not in use, also had powerful medical applications, effectively cutting recovery time in half, but even so the boy had a tough road ahead of him.

Already her friend and work colleague, head of project E division Doctor Ritsuko Akagi was heading up a team hard at work on a prosthetic limb for the boy, Nerv's immense scientific and technological resources, meant that only the best and most advanced technology would be used, her bottle blonde friend had guaranteed that Shinji would have all the mobility and dexterity of a normal arm, without it his prospects as a pilot would be bleak to say the least.

The eye was much more of a problem, while there were various levels of research ongoing towards creating singular bionic eye's, the technology where humans were concerned was a bit limited, the only devices currently in circulation, were large expensive visors designed primarily for those with failing vision, and both Misato and Ritsuko had surmised the boy would not like that, nor was it really appropriate, all it would do is make him stand out more.

Misato dryly wondered if the commander would buy his son a pet parrot into the bargain, though that would require him having a sense of humour, not to mention that Shinji would no doubt fail to see the funny side of such a gift.

Misato stepped into the boy's room flopping onto his bed, and grabbing the pillow which still carried the boys scent held it against her, Nerv had used emergency measures which allowed them to activate and requisition other pilot's, and as a direct result the Fourth child Mari Illustrious Makinami was in route from Bethany base near Russia, to bolster their defence and act as a potential reserve pilot for unit one.

Misato had not heard much of the girl, but what little she read of the girls profile had caused her to raise an eyebrow in interest, the British-Japanese girl sounded like an risk taker, and seemed to thoroughly enjoy piloting Eva, unlike Shinji who disliked it intensely due to the sympathetic pain feedback along with other issue's, Misato could only hope she would follow orders and that her apparently exuberant personality might rub off a little on Shinji. One thing Misato found fascinating, was a psych report on the girl from eight months ago, she had apparently been an angry, aggressive, often borderline self-destructive girl, but something somewhere had apparently changed during those eight months.

Misato lay down on her side, pulling the covers over herself and holding the boys pillow close to her, she felt hot tears burning her eyes, and let out a deep sigh, finally admitting to herself that her young ward had wormed his way into her heart, "I'll see you tomorrow Shinji, Hang in there kid." She mumbled as she lay there, holding the pillow against her until exhaustion finally took over, drawing her into a fitful slumber.

* * *

><p>A blue sky on a sunny day with only a sprinkling of clouds, was what greeted the eyes of Shinji Ikari as they fluttered open, sitting up the boy blinked in confusion at his surroundings, he lay in a lush field with green grass spreading out as far as the eye could see, the tiniest hint of a breeze, and purple lavender flowers adding a pleasant scent to the surreal setting.<p>

Shinji stood up puzzled, for the last thing he could remember was the car crash, and an inhuman amount of pain and disorientation, "Is this what being dead is like?" He wondered to himself, but if this was indeed the other side then, "where is everyone else?" The boy wondered, he glanced down at his left arm finding it to be perfectly intact, as was his eye causing the boy to form a puzzled frown, he was dressed in his usual white school shirt and black slacks, a pale blue vest underneath his shirt, not really knowing what else to do, he started walking simply picking a direction at random.

He did not get very far when a mournful sounding howl, came from behind him causing him to halt in his tracks, turning around the boy stared at an animal he had only ever seen in books or documentaries, a large Timber Wolf sat on its haunches staring at him, it had unusual green eyes and what Shinji swore was a small lupine smile.

Shinji gave a start, but was rooted to the spot as the animal approached him, its tongue gently lolling out the side of its mouth as it regarded him, "Um nice doggie?" Shinji squeaked, somewhat pathetically, the wolf stopped once again looking at him, and what happened next nearly caused the boy to faint, "hello child." Came a voice from within the boys head.

Shinji's jaw popped open as he stared disbelievingly at the canine, its voice had been that of a woman's, melodious and achingly familiar, despite him not being able to place it, "wait you can talk?! What's going on?" The boy asked sitting down as he felt a momentary wave of dizziness, the wolf padded up to him and sat next to the boy. resting its head on his lap.

"You're somewhere safe child." Came the reply, again Shinji was unable to shake the impression that the wolf was smiling, there was something strangely comforting about the animal's presence, something he couldn't understand, "The accident?" The boy asked morosely, "I must have hit my head harder than I thought." In reply the animal tilted its head up to look at him, "to answer your unasked question. No you're not dead." The wolf's eyes took on a hint of sadness, "however, you will never be the same again I'm afraid."

Shinji sighed as he looked out at the beautiful scenery around him, listening to the chirp of insects and the twittering of birds, "My life just seems to go from bad to worse." He sighed morosely, tears began to sting at the corners of his eyes, "how am I supposed to live, when things like this keep happening to me?!" he stated with growing anger.

"Life has been hard for you child." The wolf said sympathetically, "It is the small changes, the gradual steps, and being willing to face fate, which makes a person stronger." Shinji frowned at this statement, "Where would I start? I'm not really very good a living, sure I can cook and clean, and that sort of thing but life and social stuff isn't something I'm good at." He finished sounding defeated.

The wolf sat back on its haunches and looked at him its eyes seeming to peer into his soul, "Start small and work your way up, after all Rome wasn't built in a day." The wolf said, causing Shinji to look at it quizzically, an image of Misato appeared before him and the animal's ears twitched, "An interesting role model for certain." The animal said, sounding amused at something.

Shinji sat considering the wolf's words carefully, "Well I guess, if the imaginary wolf in my dream tells me to go and try to live more… I guess I could give it a go." He said, not sounding fully convinced, the wolf laughed and tilted its head at him, it sounded like a warm summer's day and made him think of dimly recalled times, long ago when he had been happy, "Well it's a start I suppose." Came the reply.

"I came to Tokyo three looking for reconciliation with my dad, but maybe I do need to find my own way, make my own fate." The boy said, with more than a hint of sadness, the wolf seemed to smile sadly at him nodding, "If you can make it, well then that's good for you." She said.

"I don't know what the consequences of bringing you here will be." The animal admitted, and jumping back upright gave his arm a nudge, "But, I'm willing to bet it will be spectacular!" she finished tail wagging, "Mind over matter child, watch this."

Out of nowhere a stick of wood appeared at his feet, causing the boy to glance suspiciously at the wolf who was staring at him intently, shaking his head Shinji stood and picked the stick up, and hurled it with all his might, a small smile appeared on the boy's face, as the wolf tore off after the stick like a missile fired from a launcher, dreams Shinji decided could be very odd things indeed.

* * *

><p>Rei Ayanami the fourteen year old pilot of Evangelion unit zero, and the designated First child sat in the hospital room of one Shinji Ikari, with an old pre-impact book by Ernest Hemingway sitting in her lap, the boy was still in a drug induced slumber, the sounds of the various monitoring devices the only thing to disturb the relative silence of his room, occasionally the boys right hand would twitch or he would shift a little, but as yet he showed no signs of waking up two days after his accident.<p>

She had been sitting in the same exact chair, when captain Katsuragi had come in the afternoon prior, the woman had made a big fuss of the unconscious boy, stroking his hair and talking to him in a soft voice, even though he was clearly out like a light. The heady combination of pain killers and sedatives, would keep him under for at least another twenty four hours, time enough Rei hoped for the vast majority of his injuries to ease, when Misato had turned to leave she had chased Rei to go home, though the girl had been tempted to disobey.

Rei thought back to the day of that horrific incident, in which the boy could so easily have lost his life, she had been traveling in the car behind, and had seen the black sedan plow into the lead car causing the vehicle to spin almost ninety degree's, everything had seemed to slow down, as the car she was traveling in screeched to a halt swerving to miss the attacking vehicle, and much to the chagrin of her driver, her car then chosen to stall at the most inopportune time.

She recalled the brief but brutal shoot out that had resulted in the attackers death, and bolting from her car running to Shinji's, despite protests from her section two escorts, as she crawled in through the rear right passenger door, she had been appalled at the boys injuries.

He had been hunched forward, sobbing and whimpering uncontrollably, blood caking the right side of his face where it oozed from the damaged eye, he appeared to have hit his head off the door, as an ugly welt on his forehead was leaking blood, and an angry bruise had already begun to form, it was the arm though that caused Rei the most distress, for simply looking at his left arm had made the normally stoic girl feel ill.

In all this the expression on Rei's face had never changed from the usual indifferent mask she held in place, save for a narrowing of the eyes, one would think she was completely unmoved by the sight before her, however inside she was a storm of warring emotions, and one overwhelming question, "Why didn't he attempt to shoot at me?" the man had clearly only been after Shinji.

As she had gently tilted the boys head back, she looked in his good eye and could see that it was unfocused, and he had an understandably dazed look on his face, the lack of seeming reaction to her presence gave her the strong impression that he was concussed, and likely going into shock, she carefully lowered the boys head as best she could, undoing his seat belt which became stuck on account of his trapped arm.

Rei had ran her hand gently across the boys back, whispering to him as if soothing a wounded animal, all the while cursing the length of time it seemed to be taking the emergency recovery team to arrive, she recalled feeling a sense of helplessness and fear, that the ambulance would somehow not get to him in time.

So here in the hospital he lay, looking much like she herself had not so long ago, his head covered in bandages his left arm in a cast, and generally looking like he had lost a bare knuckle fight with a heavyweight prize fighter, Rei reached over and ran her hand along the arm cast which terminated in a stump, and not for the first time wondering what the boys reaction to his limb loss would be, Shinji had enough self-image issue's as it was.

Shinji had been one of only two people in her life to ever show concern for her wellbeing, the other person being commander Ikari, after her abortive first attempt to activate unit zero had landed her in the hospital, and left her physically unable to pilot the Eva, she still recalled the expression on Shinji's face as he had pulled open her entry plug, at the conclusion of operation Yashima.

She had in unit zero, and had been acting as a shield for Shinji in unit one who was sniping the fifth Angel Ramiel, his first encounter against the immense diamond shaped creature had gone rather badly, and so a plan had been devised to take the target out at extreme range with a positron sniper rifle, however the first shot had missed and the target had returned fire.

Rei had leapt into the path of the oncoming beam, holding a modified space shuttle hull as a shield, willing to sacrifice herself to give the boy time to take the second shot, which had destroyed the targets core and collapsed it's AT field, unit zero itself had been very nearly melted to slag by the enemies energy attack.

When the boy had shed tears of joy at seeing her unharmed in her entry plug, Rei had not known how to react and had said as much to Shinji, the boy had turned to her telling her she just needed to smile, and so she had smiled for him a radiant smile that had left the boy blushing.

The blue haired albino girl turned her gaze to the doorway, here agent Sato stood guard her black suit and dark glasses, the standard regalia of a section two agent, standing out in contrast to her natural blonde hair, Rei had read the woman's profile, noting she was part Japanese part European, but all professional when it came to her duties, signified by the presence of the SMG she held in her hands.

No one got passed Sato without showing the correct details, and woe betide the foolish doctor or nurse who forgot their id badge, it had gotten so bad that commander Fuyutsuki himself had to come down and tell the woman to relax, something that had amused the staff greatly, indeed there were vetted section two agents stood in the room itself, meaning anyone trying to harm the third child wouldn't live to tell the tale.

Rei watched as Doctor Ritsuko Akagi appeared at the doorway sporting her usual white lab coat over her normal uniform, flashing her security badge to the zealous agent before advancing into the room to check on the boy, the bottle blonde checked over the boys vitals seemingly satisfied with what she saw, and then administrated his LCL injection, content that her patient was doing as well as could be expected she turned her attention to Rei.

"Rei it's late, and you have school tomorrow, Shinji isn't going anywhere….. Leastwise not while Sato is on duty." The woman said, with a hint of annoyance at that last statement, Rei closed the book she had been reading and stood up, glancing one final time at the beds occupant before making her way to the door, when Ritsuko spotted the book in her hand and read the title, she nearly had an aneurysm as she stared at the girls retreating form.

* * *

><p>Kozo Fuyutsuki, vice commander of Nerv and the only confidant of one Gendo Ikari, stood in Gendo's cavernous office, gazing out of the large set of windows overlooking the Geofront, his brown uniform done up tight and proper as was protocol, it was late and the two men had just finished going over the preliminary medical report on the Third child Shinji Ikari, the boy was expected to be out of action for a minimum of three to four weeks, and that was a best case scenario.<p>

The sixty year old former professor of metaphysical biology, had been down to see the boy himself when he had been brought in, he had been appalled at the act of violence that had been perpetrated on the pilot of unit one, appalled and more than a little sickened that anyone could do such a thing to a child.

Shinji would need therapy at some point, as well as no doubt mental health care, this being something Gendo could not allow his estranged son, as Nerv Japan did not have the funding for mental health care, Kozo sighed and not for the first time mentally cursed SEELE and their budgetary restrictions that left their hands tied.

The old men of SEELE had some plan to initiate the human instrumentality project, a scheme that would involve them become gods over a gestalt mankind, Fuyutsuki himself had been vehemently opposed to such a thing, the forcible unification of all mankind into a single state, that is until he discovered how powerless he had really been, it would happen whether or not he was around to see it.

Gendo intended to seize control of SEELE's instrumentality project, and use it for his own scheme, to reunite with his wife Yui Ikari, the woman who Kozo had seen as a daughter and friend was trapped within the core of Eva unit one, and had been ever since the initial activation contact ten years ago, Shinji had been there a mere four years old at the time, but had seemingly repressed the memories of the incident.

It had been after his wife's disappearance that Gendo had abandoned the boy, leaving him with a teacher, the man had been paid to educate the boy but had seen to it that Shinji was kept in an emotional bubble, that he had few if no friends while growing up, so he would be nice and pliable in the unlikely event his father had needed him.

Gendo himself in contrast to the older man, was sat in his customary pose at his desk, his dark military jacket hanging open sloppily a red turtle neck sweater underneath, his eyes hidden behind his tinted spectacles leaning forward, with his hands folded in front of his chin, he listened to Ritsuko deliver her estimate for when the boy would be eligible to begin synch tests again, "three weeks, at the minimum then." The supreme commanders powerful yet measured voice enquired.

"Yes sir, assuming no further complications." Came the reply from Akagi, "Have security ascertained if there was a threat to the other pilots yet?" she asked, Gendo leaned back an almost indolent smirk on his face, one hand running through his beard as he replied, "They are of the belief that only the Third child was the target, though they have not been able to determine the motives."

Kozo shuddered at the complete indifference the man showed to the fate of his only son, Gendo truly seemed to see the boy as nothing more than a disposable means to an end, and not for the first time wondered what Yui would have made of this had she still been around, more than likely he surmised she would have skinned both he and Gendo alive.

"Ill notify captain Katsuragi of the new schedule myself." The elder grey haired man stated, as he moved past Gendo's desk eager to leave the room, Kozo had only ever joined the man's mad plan out of dedication to his former student Yui, now more than ever, the vice commander wondered if he would burn in hell for what he and Gendo were doing to the children.

He stepped out into the corridor breathing a sigh of relief, and was joined shortly by Ritsuko who had an intensely irritated expression on her face, "You would think it would kill him to act human once in a while!" the bottle blonde fumed, Kozo just chuckled, "it's not in his nature, I'm afraid." He said as he turned and headed for his office.

* * *

><p>Fourteen year old Mari Makinami, sat on the train traveling down into the Geofront, and had to marvel at the vast underground cavern lit by the sunlight, which was carefully redirected by powerful mirrors located in the metropolis above, the place was a veritable underground paradise, with a huge inverted pyramid lake next to the glass pyramid of Nerv central headquarters.<p>

It was Thursday afternoon, and the half British half Japanese girl positively bounced up and down in her seat, with pent up excitement for her upcoming synch test with Evangelion unit one, the lengthy flight in from Bethany base had most assuredly been worth it, if only to see in person the purple berserker that had destroyed three angels already.

Mari had attended a catholic school while she had trained for piloting the Eva, before transferring to Bethany base, her plaid skirt, white blouse, and green neck tie was the standard uniform for the very English establishment, and judging by the undisguised lusty stares of several Japanese men on her way to the train station, something she intended to wear at Tokyo three high school, uniform rules be damned.

In addition to unit one of course, there was the pilot Shinji Ikari as well, the brunette paused in her bouncing slightly, as her thoughts drifted to the boy lying in the medical wing, she had seen pictures of the boy having read his profile, and had decided he looked remarkably like a kicked puppy, he had those adorable sad eyes of his staring out of the photo.

Mari let out a growl as she thought of the injuries he had sustained in the unprovoked attack, and mused that if she had been able to get her hands on the culprit, it would have been a very slow and painful affair indeed.

Mari was normally a lovely natured girl, her blue eye's flashing playfully from behind her red rimmed glasses, and having an ample figure for her age that the boys simply drooled over certainly didn't hurt either, well it had caused her problems once before, but she forced herself to pull back from that particular memory.

However as some had had the misfortune of finding out, get on her bad side, and you were in for a world of hurt, after all she hadn't been chosen as a pilot based on her gorgeous looks and charms alone, no and if you underestimated the bubbly good natured girl, you would take a hard fall.

She had trained in as many combat forms as was possible for her to learn, the girl had decided that if you were going to control a giant cyborg using your mind, then you might as well look as professional and awesome as possible while doing so, plus it didn't hurt her future military prospects having firearms certificates, and being fully qualified in the Martial arts.

That Mari loved to do extreme sports, and other adrenalin increasing activities had been an area that had caused her instructors some concern, after all it wouldn't do to have an potential Eva pilot break her neck while paragliding, or rock climbing, Mari loved the rush that came with doing something dangerous, and for Mari Makinami the ultimate rush would have to be piloting the Eva, something she now finally had a full shot at.

Her own Eva, provisional unit five, was still under construction back at Bethany base and it would be sometime before the unique, and experimental Eva was ready for delivery, still when she had been told of Nerv Japans requisition of her, she had let out a triumphant yelp of glee, "Front lines here I come!" the brunette had cheered.

The train finally pulled into the central station at headquarters, and Mari jumped to her feet barely able to contain herself, out on the platform waiting for her was captain Misato Katsuragi, the raven haired woman stepped forwards extending a hand, which the girl shook enthusiastically surprised at the woman using a more western custom, "Welcome to Nerv Japan miss Makinami." The woman greeted her.

Mari stuck her tongue out playfully, before replying "Just Mari is fine, Miss Katsuragi." The girl said grinning playfully, as the inevitable reply to just call her Misato was forth coming, Mari turned and followed the older woman to a door, which in turn led to a moving walkway, she whistled at the impressive size of the base as it carried them to their destination, they exited the walkway and proceeded down a corridor to an elevator, which opened up revealing an albino girl with blue hair, she was wearing what Mari presumed was the local school uniform.

"We have a couple of hours before your test, so if you don't mind we're going to go down to see Shinji." Misato explained, Mari leaned back as the elevator began to descend, "He should be waking up within the next thirty minutes according to Rits, and I want to be there when he does." Mari nodded that this was ok with her, as she continued to observe the unusual pale girl next to her.

"So you must be the First child? Rei Ayanami correct?" Mari asked the pale girl, "Yes." Came the quiet reply, "well pleased to meet you I'm Mari! I'm looking forward to working with you!" Mari exclaimed cheerfully, "I see." Rei returned, causing Mari to blink at her, "Not much for conversation are you?" Mari enquired, "No." came Rei's monotone reply, causing Mari to twitch, "Well you're no fun." Mari said, tongue once more sticking out.

Finally the elevator opened, letting them out into a primarily white corridor, and Mari took a sniff wrinkling her nose at the smell of bleach and antiseptic, "Oh yay my least favourite smells." the girl groused, adjusting her green neck tie as they walked towards the room of the recovering Third child, "Give me good old LCL any time!" she declared, finally they stopped outside of a door where Ritsuko Akagi stood waiting for them, "ah good you're here." The doctor spoke addressing Misato primarily.

"He's starting to show signs of coming to, I'll need the girls to wait outside... we don't want to overwhelm him." She turned and pointed the two girls to a seat just outside the room, "He'll be disorientated and once he spots the arm, upset more than likely, so just bear that in mind Misato." The bottle blonde doctor stated, giving her friend a pointed look.

Mari watched as the operations director took a deep breath, steadying herself before nodding, "Ok Rits, I'm ready." Misato said, as she stepped through the door, leaving Mari and Rei to wait outside on the seat.


	2. Awakenings

Darkness and numbness slowly gave way to light and sensation, as Shinji Ikari slowly returned to the world of consciousness, he took a deep breath as his eye slowly fluttered open, and he lay there on his hospital bed, staring mutely at the white tiled ceiling waiting for his brain to return to full thinking capacity.

His right eye socket along with most of his body, ached dully and was covered up with bandages, an intravenous drip was inserted into his right arm at the crook of his elbow, though the saline bag itself was almost empty, he blinked slowly still feeling stupefied as doctor Akagi came into view, and changed the bag.

Turning his head slowly to the left, a small weary smile teased the edges of his mouth as his gaze came to rest on his guardian Misato, who was sat next to him a look of weary concern on her face, the woman edged her seat closer to him, and reached out to gently stroke his face.

Under normal circumstances the boy would have flinched away from such physical contact, however instead he simply closed his eye letting out a contented sound too drowsy to complain, Misato smiled at this progress, and leaning in placed a gentle kiss on the boy's forehead, as his brain continued its journey towards a wakeful state.

"M… Misa? How long?" the boy finally managed to croak out, his voice weak and his throat feeling like sandpaper, Misato gently stroked the woozy boy's hair, her chocolate coloured eye's full of compassion, "three days, you gave us all quite a scare there kiddo." She murmured softly.

Ritsuko used the beds control, and with some help from Misato, the boy was able to sit slowly upright still feeling like he had been hit by a truck, which was not far off the truth, Misato held a Styrofoam cup with a small straw sticking out of it up for him, and he took a mouthful of water to ease his parched throat.

"I… feel like I was trampled by my Eva." The boy said, letting out a small groan, he reached up to wipe the sleep from his eye, and found himself staring numbly at his left arm, or rather what was left of said appendage, the cast terminated just a little ways below his elbow, and for a few moments all the boy could do was stare mutely at it, "M… Misato?!" Shinji finally cried out despairingly his voice still hoarse, adrenalin suddenly pumping into his body.

His guardian slid forwards ever so gently drawing him into a protective embrace, and began rocking him back and forth, Shinji could feel himself starting to shake, as a myriad of emotions raged within him, his breath coming in ragged gasps before finally a wounded and despairing cry escaped his lips, and he began to sob uncontrollably clutching at Misato with his right hand.

"I'm sorry Shinji! I'm so sorry!" Misato whispered to him whilst continuing to rock him, one hand resting gently on the back of his head, the other at the middle of his back, they stayed like that for what seemed an age, after a while his sobbing slowly subsided into the odd sniffle, and he simply sat there letting himself be held by the older woman.

Shinji felt emotionally spent as he sat there, trying to process what he had come to learn, and suspecting he knew the reason his right eye ached, he turned towards doctor Akagi, his expression still distraught when the fake blonde gave a gentle cough to get his attention, "we're working on a top of the range prosthetic for you Shinji." She said, looking uncomfortable at all the raw emotion on display, "You have my word, it will be just as good as your old arm." She stated reassuringly.

"Promise?" The boy asked in a small voice, Ritsuko leaned forwards placing a hand on his shoulder, "Cross my heart. We'll have you nearly good as new." She finished, gently squeezing his shoulder somewhat awkwardly, Misato leaned the boy back onto his bed rest before trying to lighten the mood, "Hey maybe we can get it fitted with a spatula or something!" this drew a small sad smile from the boy, at the lousy attempt to cheer him up, and caused Ritsuko to roll her eyes at her friend, "I only need a parrot, and I'll be a pirate." The boy said sadly, Misato flinched as her own thoughts earlier that week came back to haunt her.

Misato seemed to pause as if considering something of great import, then reaching round her neck undid the clasp on her pendant, leaning forwards she carefully placed the cross pendant around the boys neck, "Take good care of this for me." The boy stared at her, eyes brimming with emotion at the unexpected gesture, "I…I can't take this Misato!" the boy exclaimed, however she would not take no for an answer.

A tentative knock from the door drew three sets of eyes to the brunette girl with the twin tails hairdo, who was standing there looking slightly awkward, Shinji's eye widened a bit at the sight of her, and a small blush crept onto his face as he beheld the gorgeous bespectacled girl standing in the doorway, "is it ok if I come in now?" she asked softly, her gaze fixed on Shinji.

Misato smiled gesturing for her to come forwards and turned to Shinji smiling as she introduced the pair, "Shinji Ikari, this is Miss Mari Makinami, she's here to help cover the gaping hole left by that lunatic of a driver." The boy tilted his head at this, his brow furrowing, "I'm… being replaced?" the boy asked, a mixture of emotions in his voice.

"No! No!" the girl quickly said reassuringly, "I'm your backup pilot for unit one, till they finish unit five anyway." Shinji seemed mollified by this as the girl took a seat next to Misato, he didn't really enjoy piloting the Eva but he didn't want to be sent away either, "I'm quite looking forwards to working with you actually." Mari stated enthusiastically a pleasant smile on her face, one that caused his heart to start pounding.

Shinji now looked at the girl fully, and couldn't help but lay there drinking in the girls appearance silently, marvelling at her amazing curves, she looked so vibrant and there was compassion in her blue eyes, which looked oh so incredible behind her red rimmed glasses, those eyes held him enthralled and try as he might he could not tear his gaze away, a strange feeling came over the boy as for what felt like for the first time in his life, he felt a yearning desire for someone.

The girl, no the young woman came round to the opposite side of the bed to Misato, and reaching down took his hand sending a shock through the boy, his arm momentarily forgotten as he simply sat there eyes locked to hers, a small blush crept up the girls face as she squeezed his hand gently.

"Oh oh! Looks like love at first sight to me." Misato said grinning at the boy, who started turning a nice shade of red, Shinji didn't have the energy to splutter or protest, nor would he have for he had to admit Misato was probably right, he simply lay there mesmerised by Mari, trying desperately to think of something witty and clever to say, while Mari giggled at his attention.

"How are you finding Tokyo three so far then Mari?" Ritsuko asked breaking the spell, the girl sat down in the chair Ritsuko pulled up for her, she leaned back stretching like a waking cat, momentarily breaking contact with Shinji before answering, "Pretty good so far, hotels a bit on the naff side though, service was lousy this morning." She groused playfully the British term causing the three to blink.

"Y…You're staying at a hotel?" Shinji asked finally finding his voice, Mari nodded adjusting her glasses and Shinji felt a little hot under the collar as the girl bounced in her seat, Mari and certain parts of Mari seemed to be in perpetual motion the boy noted, 'I mustn't run away!' the boy admonished himself before opening his mouth which felt dry, "Well M… Misato has a spare room. That is if it's not a problem?" He finished meekly, turning to look pleadingly at his guardian.

Misato looked momentarily taken aback by the boys request, before grinning wickedly crossing to the other side of the bed, and hooking her arm over the girls shoulder, "What do you say Mari? We could always do with the extra company, and we have the most awesome room service." She said winking impishly at Shinji, the boy's eyes meeting Mari's almost desperate as she sat back pretending to consider it, "Sure what the hell! You'll probably need the extra help when we get puppy boy here home anyway." She said after a pause.

Shinji blinked, "Um puppy boy?" he enquired causing the three females in the room to burst out laughing, it was at this point that Rei chose to join them quietly taking the seat vacated by Katsuragi next to the boy, and frowning almost unnoticeably at the focus of the boys attention.

* * *

><p>Mari found herself sat in the entry plug of unit one wearing her green and cream coloured provisional plug suit which was currently a little tight, and it was chafing her breasts, still she sat there patiently waiting as the entry plug was inserted into the upper spine of Evangelion unit one, "Here we go!" she breathed excitedly.<p>

The plug finished its descent and a female voice came over the intercom system, "initiating primary contacts, flooding the entry plug." The amber coloured Link connect liquid began to flow up from the bottom of the plug, this of course causing Mari to smile as the fluid immersed her completely, she breathed in allowing the liquid to fill her lungs savouring the smell of it.

More chatter filled her ears as the bridge crew went through the Eva's activation sequence, "Initiating secondary contacts, connecting the interface." Mari could feel it, the presence of the Eva's mind touching her own, and oh my what a presence it was! Leaving the girl feeling a bit like she was being judged, "A-10 neural connection nominal, LCL charge is nominal."

Mari closed her eyes as the process of merging her mind with the cyborg continued, "Primary contact phase complete, synapse synchronisation rate 48.8 percent!" came the young woman's voice sounding astonished, Mari could feel the Eva champing at the bit like a thorough bred race horse, desperate to inflict maximum carnage and grinned wickedly.

"Harmonics within nominal parameters, no instability detected." Mari blew out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding, smiling as she sensed the Eva and it sensed her, "We're gonna kick so much ass together!" the girl shouted letting out a whoop of primal joy.

A cold male voice was picked up from the control room, and Mari could guess at the identity of its owner though she suspected the speaker had not meant to be heard, "She always did have a habit of taking in strays." Commander Gendo Ikari murmured.

Ritsuko's voice sounded in the entry plug, "well done Mari, we'll run a few tests and then you can hit the simulator after." The head scientist stated, Mari eye's widened as she sensed what seemed almost to be the Evangelion approving of her, though in what way she couldn't be sure.

* * *

><p>"So then, Mari Makinami eh?" a female voice said causing the boy to whirl around, suddenly finding himself in a forest next to a small stream, his body once more whole, "again? I don't normally do repeats." The boy stated dryly.<p>

The wolf sauntered up next to him and dipped its nose to the stream, Shinji watched as its tongue lapped at the oh so real seeming water before turning its gaze to him, "Very bold of you Shinji." The animal said approvingly, Shinji looked around at his latest environment, taking in the towering cedar trees through which's leaves the sunlight cascaded, the soft chirping of birds filling the wooded area, "it's so beautiful here." He sighed.

"Yes it is, and you're the first company I have had here, well ever if I'm honest." The wolf said wistfully as she sat before the boy, Shinji stooped down picking up a stone in his left hand savouring the touch of the object, "Who are you?" the boy finally asked the question he had been aching to ask.

"I can't tell you that yet, however to make things easier you can call me…. Callie." The wolf said settling on a name, Shinji hefted the stone in his hand letting it fall back into his palm as he considered these words, "Ok. And where are we? Cause this is way too vivid for a dream." He asked his curiosity building.

Callie rolled on her back snacking playfully at some mayfly that had flown too close, "close your eyes, stretch out with your sense of self like when you join with your Eva." She said mysteriously, the boy did as he was instructed breathing deep and evenly, filtering out the noise of the forest, the wind rustling the leaves and the sound of the water babbling in the stream, the wolf watching him fixedly as if waiting for something.

An insect flitted past his ear, but to the boys senses its buzzing was like a whisper on the wind and not the high pitched buzzing he was expecting, the stone in his hand slid from his grasp as he lost himself more and more within the moment, a third presence brushed his mind as he pushed on, one that felt like barely supressed energy crackling like lightening, it was unique and fascinating, 'Mari.' The thought came to him unbidden.

On and on he stretched himself until he gained a sense of belonging and comfort, like two arms had gently wrapped around him and were offering him protection and surety, "This feels like when I'm sitting in the Eva." The boy breathed, but it also felt like so much more than that, for wherever he was Shinji Ikari caught a brief glimpse of the galaxy and its myriad stars, the earth and moon lay before him and a teasing sense of something so huge he couldn't quite quantify it, "amazing!" was all he could manage to say as he drew back.

"I know right?!" Callie said before licking the boy's hand drawing him back to the forest, Shinji slid to his knee's his whole body shaking with the enormity of what he had just seen, for a second he had felt like his head might crack under the enormity of what he had sensed and witnessed, even now the specific details were beginning to fade.

"Think of this place as a sort of mental Nexus." Callie said plopping down next to him, "I can bring you here because you're in decent proximity to unit one. Over time distance won't become a barrier to you." She continued explaining to him, grinning at his lack of comprehension, "Don't worry I didn't get it at first either. It will take practice to get back here by yourself." She said glancing up at the boy as he stood once again.

"I brought your mind here to hopefully help you Shinji. I think through the Nexus you will be able to do great things." She said with a flick of her ears, a small proud smile forming itself on her lupine features, and with that a very familiar stick appeared at the boys feet again, "Now if you would be so good as to throw the stick." Callie said ears pricking up.

"You want me to throw the stick?" Shinji asked, a sly grin breaking out on his face, the wolf nodded enthusiastically eyes fixed on the bit of wood as the boy bent to pick it up, "Are you sure?" he asked teasingly, waggling the stick back and forth, Callie seemed to grin as she said, "Maybe there is hope for you yet child." Before darting off as Shinji hurled the object of her desire.

* * *

><p>Fourteen year-old Toji Suzuhara made his way slowly towards Misato Katsuragi's apartment building, accompanied of course by his long time side kick the bespectacled otaku Aida Kensuke, the tall athletic boy had if you asked any of the other school kids at Tokyo three high, been like a bear with a sore head ever since word of Shinji's accident had reached his ears on Monday evening via the news channel.<p>

That Nerv had attempted a blanket wall of silence with regards to the boys status, and having to deal with the various news and media poking around outside their school, had put the boy in a foul mood all week long, now finally Saturday morning had rolled round and he had received a phone call from Misato herself, to say he was being provisionally discharged from the medical facility later that evening and to come by and see him.

The one thing both boys noticed as the headed towards the elevator that would take them up to the correct floor, was how much more visible the security was, normally section two kept very much to the shadows, but from the looks of it the kid gloves were off now as they could see agents on the roof holding what looked like sniper rifles.

Now more than ever Toji wished that he and the smaller boy had gotten off to a better start, when Shinji had first been deployed in the Eva against the third Angel it had been messy to say the least, Toji's sister Sakura had been nearly crushed under debris in one of the shelters during the fight and Toji being the deep thinker he was had introduced himself fist first to the shy pilot, not once but twice.

Sakura's injuries would heal in time of course, and indeed his sister had royally chewed her older brother out when she found out what he had done, proving that six year olds could be pretty damn scary, the fact Shinji had received no combat or piloting instruction before that first incident had come as a shock to Toji, who found himself wondering what kind of morons were running Nerv.

Toji having realised the error of his ways had decided to make amends with the young pilot the only way he could, by getting the smaller boy to hit him back, it turned out despite his small frame that Shinji had a mean right hook, and his jaw had ached nearly all day afterwards, it was after that series of events that the three boys had become inseparable, at least until Mondays horror show.

The perpetual summer afternoon heat beating down on the pair as they exited the elevator and made their way towards the apartment door, caused Toji to wipe the sweat from his brow, Second impact had left the world in a state of permanent summer, and as a result the only companies doing well were the ones in the air conditioning business, them and Nerv. As they drew near, they spotted a black suited woman with blonde hair and dark glasses standing guard outside the apartment door, her service pistol in hand, "Man they really have beefed up the security round the pilots!" Kensuke noted.

"Yeah well, they don't want a repeat of Monday do they?" Toji pointed out as the woman turned to look at them, she indicated for them to stop and pulled out a hand held radio, which she spoke into and apparently satisfied with the response from the other end gestured for them to approach the door.

Pressing the door buzzer Toji kicked back on his heel's smiling nervously at the section two agent, needless to say she did not smile back, her cold expression causing a chill to go down the school jock's spine, thankfully the door opened and they we're greeted by a unbelievably attractive young brunette girl wearing glasses, and what looked like a catholic school uniform.

"Hello boys! Can I help you?" she asked whilst seeming to bounce on the balls of her feet, this motion caused her anatomy to do some very interesting things, and both boys could only stare momentarily dumbstruck at her, the fact neither boy was looking at her face seemed to amuse her immensely, "Oh boys! My face is up here!" she said playfully waggling her eyebrows.

"We…We're here to see the shin man!" Toji finally blurted out blushing furiously, the girl giggled at their discomfort before she looked outside at the agent who nodded, she stepped back allowing them in though not before delivering a playful smack to Toji's, rear causing the jock to whirl round making an alarmed sound.

The two boys kicked off their shoes in the entrance hall before making their way into the kitchen area, where they spotted Misato perched at the dining table, slowly working her way through a pile of paperwork, she glanced up before greeting the pair, "Hey guys! He's in the living room but go in quietly in case he's asleep." The raven haired woman said keeping her voice down, Toji nodded as he and Kensuke made their way as directed.

Sure enough the brown haired boy was lying on the couch, out like a light with a pillow tucked under his head, this gave both boys plenty of time to examine the most obvious injuries their friend had sustained, their eyes drawn to the white cast on his left arm, "Ah man." Toji breathed disbelievingly, he hadn't expected the injuries to be quite as severe as what now was evident.

The bouncy brunette girl who had accompanied them into the living area, nodded empathically before seeming to realise she had forgotten something, "Oh. I'm Mari by the way, Mari Makinami Shinji's new roommate." She whispered introducing herself, Toji and Kensuke exchanged names with her before returning their gaze to their friend, a sling was helping keep the boys arm against his chest as he lay on his back, Toji watched as Shinji reached up with his right hand and scratched his nose before flopping it back down.

Shinji then followed this up with a half stretch, followed by a grunt of discomfort as they heard a definite cracking of joints, his good eye slowly fluttering open, and he lay blinking owlishly his mouth working as stared at the two boys stood at the foot of the couch, a small genuine smile broke out on his face as he realised who it was, "Hey guys! H…how long you been here?" he asked sleepily.

Toji grinned and stepped forwards to ruffle the smaller boy's hair in greeting, chuckling as the boy ineffectively tried to swat his hand away, "just got here man, Miss Misato phoned figured you could do with cheering up." Toji said, he watched as Mari stepped forward to help the boy sit up, an amused expression on the jocks face.

Shinji playfully groused at Mari's over attentiveness, but otherwise didn't complain too much causing his two friends to snigger, "Look at this Ken! He has his own private nurse!" Toji joked prodding Shinji, "Yeah I'll bet bath time must be fun!" the otaku said with a wicked grin as Shinji blushed to his roots.

Mari mock glared at the two before bursting out laughing at the expression on Shinji's face, "Well at least I know school won't be boring with you two clowns hanging around!" she said earning a startled look from the pair, "wait! You're gonna be at our school?" Toji exclaimed, Kensuke's mind already turning to the yen he would be making from pictures of Mari.

Mari nodded before adding, "I'm the temporary pilot of Eva unit one, and the main pilot for Eva unit five once it's finished." This of course sent Kensuke from plotting mischief to having an immediate nerdgasm, "Whoa! You're an Eva pilot to?! That is so awesome!" the boy yelled nearly falling over in his excitement.

Shinji chuckled at Kensuke's antic's shaking his head as he watched the nerd boy drooling over Mari's pilot status, whilst the otaku bemoaned that he himself hadn't been picked yet, Mari glanced at Shinji askance and he nodded to indicate that yes, the bespectacled boy really was this completely off his rocker, "Ken's a military nut." He explained, causing the before mentioned geek to pout.

"Bit of luck I'll be back at school Monday." Shinji announced causing Toji to frown, the boy had spotted a wheelchair folded next to the television and decided to voice his concern "I dunno man you think that's a good idea? You still look a little rough to me." This earned him a glare from his friend.

"I'm not an invalid! Just can't do anything too fatiguing." Shinji said with a bit more heat than Toji was used to hearing, "besides, I'm going out of my mind with boredom." Toji held up a hand defensively, "Ok man. Just don't want you rushing back in and making yourself ill." This seemed to mollify the smaller boy, "He just wants to see how much chaos I can cause on my first day!" Mari said grinning impishly, Toji chuckled before adding, "With our teacher? It's a case of sleeping in class anyway."

It was at this point that Misato stepped into the room carrying a glass of water and a handful of tablets, "Ok Shinji! Medication time!" she said with a tad too much enthusiasm, Shinji shuddered but took the tablets stuffing them in his mouth before grabbing the glass of water to wash them down with, as he finished swallowing he made a face, "yuck, these LCL tablets suck." This of course earned the boy a gentle swat from Mari.

"Personally I think Mari's just looking forward to wheeling Shinji round the school grounds." Misato said retrieving the glass from said boy, Mari grinned whilst nodding enthusiastically and pointing at the wheelchair in question, as it was nobody noticed the tiny shiver of fear go down Shinji's back as Mari mimed riding a motorbike.

The four of them sat there catching up talking about random teenager things, Shinji telling them about the awesome new arm he was getting, Kensuke began going on about the latest military fad weapons, and Toji chimed in about the local basketball teams having a big game coming up, Mari randomly interjected her own brand of British humour into proceedings, though most of it went over the other three's heads.

By the time late evening had rolled around Shinji's could feel himself starting to nod off, he tried to keep himself up and stave off the inevitable, however it was obvious to all that he was exhausted, "Come on Ken we better make tracks it's late." Toji said standing up.

Shinji made a disappointed noise causing the jock to smile, "Don't worry man, if we don't see you tomorrow we'll see you at school." He said as the tired boy nodded sleepily, Kensuke smirked before adding, "Alone in a house full of gorgeous woman, however is he going to survive?!" the otaku said playfully, Shinji simply rolled his eye at this.

* * *

><p>Gendo Ikari sat alone in his office like a giant spider at the centre of a very big web, pouring over the intelligence from his spy in the United Nations, Japan heavy chemicals were scheduled to unveil their latest offering to the defence of planet earth, a cheap nuclear powered combat robot code named Jet Alone.<p>

The machine was so called because it could be remotely operated thus needing no pilot, the supreme commander of Nerv snorted derisively as he dropped the folder containing the technical specifications onto his desk, as far as he was concerned the foolish creation was little more than a walking bomb waiting to happen, still if it drew funds away from the Eva program then that was unacceptable.

Gendo turned his attention to another file on his desk which was of far greater interest to him, it contained all the data gathered by section two on one Aoi Takahashi, their former comrade in arms and the would be assassin of the Third child, the man had been problematic almost from the get go with his alcohol problems and disciplinary record, causing Gendo to wonder how he had ever gotten a job in the first place.

Gendo knew that regardless of his ability's a soldier, there was no way that he alone could have coordinated the attack on the boy's convoy, indeed the man had been found with a large amount of alcohol in his bloodstream during his autopsy, which would explain how he managed to bungle the attempt on the third child.

No the elder Ikari mused, someone else had been pulling the man's strings, and had helped set things up, the question on everybody's mind was just who would do something like that and why, Gendo Ikari certainly had his fair share of enemies, but to go after the man's son didn't make sense given they were estranged, it had always been his intention that keeping Shinji at arm's length, would in its own way protect the boy from such things.

Drumming his fingers on his desk, the man brought up the security video on his computers flat screen of captain Katsuragi's living room, lying on the couch seemingly fast asleep was his son Shinji, he observed the arrival of the other two boys and the beginnings of them socialising, he folded his fingers in front of his mouth as he found himself lost in thought.

Someone somewhere was holding a grudge, and had decided to take it out on his son rather than try to get at Gendo personally, he had promoted Hikaru Sato to head of Shinji's security detail, primarily due to the woman showing a ruthless dedication to her work, that she had been attached to Gendo's own detail for some time was information only the two of them were privy to.

His attention turned to the girl Makinami, whose arrival had had an oddly energising effect on the Third child, Shinji seemed much more animated than he usually would be, and it was clear for even Gendo to see that the boy was strongly attracted to her, he frowned momentarily at this other unanticipated side effect of the assassination attempt.

Gendo's original plan had been for his son to get close to Rei, this was to act as a motivator for the boy and ensure he would go to any lengths to safeguard the albino girl's life, while Makanami's arrival had now forced an adjustment to that plan, it would he surmised matter little in the long run, flicking off the display he stood and made his way to the hidden door to his bed chamber.

The man was well aware of his reputation within Nerv as being married to his work, he wondered briefly what the peons would think if they knew he literally slept on base, again to Gendo it ultimately mattered little, the scenario that and that alone was what mattered most to him and he had sacrificed much to get to the point he was at now.

Opening the small wardrobe in the box room, he slipped his jacket off and placed in on the hanger alongside six identical outfits, no one saw the commander wear anything other than his uniform because all he had was his uniform, one for each day of the week, as he slid under his covers carefully placing his glasses on a side table, he hoped that whoever was messing with his scenario would make a mistake very soon.

* * *

><p>Elias Stanton was a swarthy forty year-old former New Zealander, who was presently sat wearing his black polo neck shirt and cream khaki pants, while waiting in a Tokyo three cafeteria for a phone call from his employer, a conversation the ex NZ SAS soldier was really not looking forward to, "here waiter! Another beer for table six!" He shouted irritably, watching with amusement as the small balding Japanese man went scurrying.<p>

The farce with the boy had probably ruined his reputation in the Private Military circles, all thanks to him believing an ex member of Nerv's own Section two, would be capable of handling a fairly easy ambush and shoot job.

'No!' he thought with increasing irritation, 'you had to go and get drunk while waiting!' the beverage he had ordered arrived on his table along with a glass, Elias grunted his acknowledgement as the man went back to serving his few other customers.

Business in Tokyo three had been in a bit of a decline, ever since the third Angel had stomped on into town and tried to make Swiss cheese of the place, more and more families were moving away from the fortress city with only the brave or the foolish remaining, 'or those in Nerv's back pocket' he mused.

The man had nothing against Shinji Ikari personally, after all he didn't even know the boy, however the amount of money being offered for the kids death had been just too much to pass up, and Elias being a fairly unscrupulous type had not been able to say no, more and more Elias was wishing he had simply walked up to the kid in the street, and put a round in his skull, then again there would have been no way he left the city alive if he tried that.

So he had approached Aoi Takahashi with the deal of a lifetime, and a chance for a little payback on his former employers, Elias wondered if the man had been too much of a bleeding heart in the end to really make an effort, hence the boozing. Elias jumped as his phone finally started to ring, and taking a deep breath he hit the answer key, "Elias here." He said, wincing as his employer made it very clear he was far from impressed with the debacle, which had made Shinji Ikari not only a global household name but had also made him a much harder target into the bargain.

"Look I'm aware that this was a cluster fuck, I'll be ready to try again in a few days." Stanton said trying to mollify his boss, he sat listening briefly to the reply before sighing and nodding, even though the person on the other end of the line couldn't see it, "All right, back off and let things cool down, I got it." More words were exchanged before his boss hung up on him leaving Elias to curse, "Sanctimonious arsehole." He spat out, downing his beer with one swallow the big man stood up paid his bill and disappeared into the night.


	3. You can (not) Jet Alone

Fate

You can (not) Jet Alone

The VTOL aircraft screamed through the air as it headed towards the location of the one-time capital of Japan old Tokyo, on board Shinji Ikari sat staring at the hand of his new prosthetic arm, the almost skeletal fingers twitching as he went through his control exercises he had been given.

The prosthetic itself was made from a lightweight carbon fibre, the lower limb portion attached to a suspension system, which in turn was strapped to his upper arm, inside the socket was a special gel layer designed to cushion the boy's stump, which was wrapped carefully in a compression bandage.

Electrodes attached to the teen boys skin read both his muscle contractions, and electrical impulses to help move the limb, once again Shinji concentrated on moving the fingers and thumb of the hand, smiling as he managed to make a fist, it would of course, he knew take time to get used to the predominantly black limb with its silver lining, but when he had first seen it his face had lit up with a bright smile.

The arm was powered by a modified rechargeable battery pack, which had been carefully designed by Ritsuko to be as portable as possible, it slotted home into a special socket on the upper suspension, and blended in with the whole arm, only a small blinking light to indicate the battery was discharging made the round object stand out.

Ritsuko had informed the boy that each battery would hold a maximum charge of twelve hours at full gain, she had provided him with a charging cradle to use at Misato's apartment, and the other would be kept at Nerv headquarters in case of emergencies.

He had received the prosthetic first thing Thursday morning, and with Mari and Misato watching on smiling encouragement to him he had tried to move the digits, as soon as they had confirmed that the limb worked he was whisked away to go get a posh suit, His father had dictated that the boy was to accompany Misato and Ritsuko on a business trip the following day, though no-one could work out quite why.

School on Monday had been slightly unsettling for Shinji to put it mildly, as Mari had wheeled the boy into class 2-A Toji and Kensuke had stood up and started applauding, and to the boy's astonishment the rest of the class had joined in, this had nearly reduced the boy to tears at the overwhelming and unexpected display of support from his peers.

Once she had gotten Shinji to his seat, Mari had of course proven to be an immediate hit with the boys of class 2-A much to Shinji's irritation, she had flounced to the front of class and written her name on the chalk board in English, whilst cheerfully introducing herself, "Hi! I'm Mari Makanami how's it hanging?!" the extroverted girl had said enthusiastically.

She had then taken the seat directly next to Shinji, this had caused the boy to relax a little his gaze however still sweeping the class jealously, Hikari Horaki the pig tailed and freckled class representative, had given the usual order to stand bow and sit as their teacher entered the room, something she exempted Shinji from the boy recalled gratefully.

Their teacher had sat down and adjusting his glasses had taken the class register, surprised at having a nearly full class he had searched Shinji out with his gaze, "Mr Ikari nice to see you up and about." The elderly man had said smiling softly, before launching into a monologue about the days immediately following second impact.

Mari had blinked disbelievingly at this turn of events, and turned to ask Shinji if this was standard policy with the old man, she had been forced to supress a chuckle for the boy had put his head down and was already drifting off to sleep.

Reaching up he adjusted his dark brown leather eye patch, the strap was taking a little getting used to, he glanced behind him at his ever present body guard Sato, whom had voiced her opinion on just what she thought of the idea of this little business excursion, however commander Ikari had made it clear he would brook no argument on the matter.

As a result when they had arrived at the tailors for his suit, which turned out to be a very expensive and exclusive establishment, Sato had stormed through the doors like an enraged bull and sent the few customers inside fleeing in terror, the doors had been locked once the group was inside, with Shinji apologising to the staff, while Mari and Misato had found the whole thing rather funny.

He had ended up with a black tuxedo suit with a white dress shirt, and a black and grey striped tie, a pair of black leather shoes shined to near perfection completed the outfit, 'great. Not only do I have to hang round with these people, I have to dress like them to!' he recalled thinking at the time, however when Mari had given him a very appreciative look and a wolf whistle, his embarrassment at the suit had diminished.

Shinji snapped back to the present as Misato tapped his shoulder, and pointed out the ruins of old Tokyo passing on their left, the skyscrapers of the old capital rising drunkenly out of the sea water, which had flooded in after the ocean had risen post second impact, Shinji marvelling that they were still standing at all after fourteen years.

He pulled out a pair of binoculars from the pocket hanging on the bulkhead in front of him, and turned to focus on the old city, he could make out lichen crawling up one of the nearest buildings, along with cracks and general decay, "I don't know why, but it makes me sad." The boy said softly.

Misato peered over his shoulder at what he was looking at, "I only dimly recall the place from before second impact." She said gently, as she rested a hand on the boys shoulder, Shinji tensed momentarily before forcing himself to relax and reaching up with his right hand to touch hers, "Sorry Misato." He said, apologising even though there was no need.

Shinji found that while he was doing much better in terms of people suddenly making contact with him, it was still taking some getting used to, he supposed the fact Mari was such a touchy feely person helped in some regards, however every now and then he would back slide a little, and had chosen not to mention anything at all about the Nexus or Callie, just in case Nerv tried to have him sectioned under the metal health act.

The VTOL began to slow down, turning gracefully in the air as it descended towards the landing area which looked for all intents and purposes like a glorified car park, they swung down past a one hundred metre tall tower which was about half as wide across, Shinji couldn't help notice the split in the building which travelled right down the middle.

The large square building on which they were to land, was seemingly part of a larger complex, the central building looking like an upside-down cereal bowl of sorts, Shinji felt their aircraft jostle slightly as it came in, and settled on the roof its engines slowly winding down with a gradual whine.

* * *

><p>Shinji had his prosthetic arm hooked in Misato's right arm as they entered the foyer, the boy leaning on the older woman to take some of the weight off his legs, he gazed around eye wide like a saucer at the sheer number of people milling about, or heading to the main auditorium, there seemed to be people of all ethnicities represented here, multiple languages being spoken in a buzz that made the boy feel very uncomfortable, Shinji didn't do well with large crowds, and this was well outside his comfort zone.<p>

Here and there, there were large posters hanging on the walls, each of them depicting a large robot of some sort, it looked to Shinji to vaguely resemble a gorilla, its arms being quite long, and it had a visor clearly meant to be a face, the robot was depicted as a red and cream colour.

He reached up running the fingers of his right hand over the cross pendant that hung at his neck, trying to draw from it as if some of Misato's strength might find its way to him, agent Sato's gaze swept the crowded room, and a low growl of irritation emerged from her throat, the brown haired boy couldn't help feeling sorry for the blond woman, who had an impossible task on her hands, "This is insane!" he heard her hiss.

Sato stood on the boy's right, pushing the boy's empty wheel chair, whilst Ritsuko stood to Misato's left, Shinji couldn't shake the sneaking suspicion his guardian was quite enjoying this, having the boy cling somewhat nervously to her, there was a tiny angelic smile present on the raven haired woman's face.

As they neared the doors leading to the auditorium, a man dressed like he had stepped out of an old school western approached their group, wearing a predominantly brown business suit and a leather Stetson, his hair was a silvery grey down to his shoulders, and a handlebar moustache sat proudly on his upper lip, his face was lined and worn yet there was a sparkle in his grey eyes, that even his wire rimmed glasses couldn't hide, he moved with the grace and strength of a much younger man, while looking like he was in his mid to late sixties.

He strode up with a polite wave, and stopped before doctor Akagi smiling broadly at the woman, "Ritsuko Akagi!" the man said, with an pronounced Texan accent, "What have you done to your hair young lady?" he asked teasingly, to Shinji's utmost surprise Ritsuko smiled, and embraced the older man.

"James Carrington! Still full of vigour I see!" She replied turning to their little group, Ritsuko introduced Misato and turning to Shinji went to give his name, however the man beat her to it, "Shinji Ikari! Pilot of Evangelion unit one! I've heard a lot about you, your dad must be very proud!" Carrington said, his face beaming at the awe struck boy.

Shinji felt his face darken slightly at the man's words, before he started speaking in a quiet voice, "I don't think he is sir. We don't really speak all that much. We don't get along I'm afraid." The man's eyes widened in genuine surprise at that, he leaned down to Shinji and spoke in a voice meant only for him that seemed full of regret, "I am sorrier than you can ever know." Causing the boy to blink in surprise, 'sorry for what? That my dad and I don't get on?' the boy wondered.

Standing back up the man's smile returned, though it now seemed a bit forced, "Well it's nice to meet the young un, that's put his life on the line for us so much!" he said loudly, drawing a few curious looks from passers-by, "Well Ritsuko, I hope that old fox Gendo isn't going to give us too much trouble, the board is looking for the slightest excuse these days." The man said leading the way into the main auditorium, "I assure you, the IPEA has nothing to worry about James." Ritsuko said as they passed into the vast room.

* * *

><p>Their group reached the table assigned for them, and Shinji found it vaguely amusing that they had this whole vast table to themselves, all around them people were mingling between tables though oddly no one came near theirs, Sato remained standing just behind the Third child, whilst Ritsuko sat to his left and Misato on his right, "Who was that guy?" Shinji finally asked.<p>

"James Alexander Carrington, he's the chairman of the IPEA, an Evangelion oversight committee." The bottle blond explained, "They make sure that countries who have Evangelion's, behave themselves." She finished causing the boy to nod in understanding, "He's a tad eccentric." Misato noted with a chuckle.

"Losing your whole family can do that to you." Ritsuko noted causing Misato to flush with shame, and an understanding look crossed her face, Shinji turned to look at the man again noting how he moved between tables, a friendly smile seemingly always on his face, "He seems happy enough." The boy said, Ritsuko just made a humming sound, turning as a waitress came to take their orders, "He's a self-made billionaire. What's not to be happy about?" Ritsuko said with a dry laugh, "He also ran a guest presentation on biotechnology at college when I was there, that's where he knows me from mainly."

Misato glanced over at her friend frowning, "I don't recall seeing him." She stated causing Ritsuko to chuckle, "that might be because you barely attended college Misato." This caused his guardian to pout, the woman crossing her arms over her chest in annoyance.

Shinji ordered a soda from the waiter and then took in his surroundings, the room was huge with bunting hanging from the ceiling, and a massive stage sat at the back of the room towards which they were facing, huge flat screen televisions dominated the wall behind the stage, along with a banner declaring proudly "Jet Alone project!"

Behind him his bodyguard stood, her head swivelling as she tried to keep watch for threats, Shinji nearly snorted loudly as a mental image of the woman's head twisting off, and flying round the room to bite at imagined foes popped into his head, "I don't think anyone is going to try anything here." He said trying to get Sato to relax, whilst at the same time trying to fight off a fit of giggles.

Their drinks arrived and Shinji glanced at his guardian, rolling his eye towards the ceiling as she loaded up on beer with a happy grin on her face, he took a sip of his soda through the provided straw before leaning forward, placing his elbows on the table and folding his hands in front of his face, he completely missed the look of supressed horror on Misato's face as he did this.

The lights in the auditorium were dimmed, and from the speakers an electric guitar led into a heavy rock n roll number, the stage lit up as spotlights in the floor panned up and around, enhancing the mist that flooded from under the stage being created by a fog machine, Shinji winced as sparklers went off in an over the top display of pyrotechnics, "That seems dangerous!" the boy pointed out, wondering if they might set the stage aflame.

The huge screens at the back lit up to show an animatic of the giant red and cream robot, stomping around fighting foe's that looked suspiciously like the third Angel, before stopping to flex its mechanical muscles, a logo popped up on the screen featuring the letters JHC, "Show offs." Ritsuko muttered under her breath.

As the music closed out a tall Japanese man strode onto the stage, he began waving enthusiastically to his audience, said audience was applauding the man with great gusto, all except the Nerv table who sat stock still, Shinji had not clapped mainly because his brain was still recovering from the light show, and his fingers were momentarily locked together.

The man stood on the stage with his microphone in hand, beaming a broad entertainer's smile at his audience, "Thank you! Thank you!" the man said, his voice booming through the auditorium, "For those of you who don't know me, my name is Shiro Tokita, I'm the executive of Japan Heavy Chemical industrial cooperative." He finished sounding to Shinji like he was awfully self-important.

"Today we are here to witness the first test demonstration of our Jet Alone project!" he said smiling at the cheer's that followed this announcement, "In a few minutes we'll be taking you up to the main control room! However before that I'd like to open the floor to a few questions."

The man had no sooner finished when Ritsuko's hand shot up in the air, "Ah yes, the world famous doctor Ritsuko Akagi." The man said, Ritsuko picked up the microphone that had been sat on the table, as a spotlight centred on her, "Thank you Mr Speaker." She said standing up.

What followed was what Shinji would describe as polite mud flinging between the two boffins, Ritsuko would point out a potential flaw such as the Jet Alone robots nuclear reactor, and Shiro would counter with a comment about the Eva's power supply issue, and even hinted that they had a solution to the Angel's AT field, this whole thing carried on in a similar vein until the man decided to strike a low blow, unintentionally dragging Shinji into the conversation.

"I'd also like to point out doctor, that your pilot has made quite an embarrassment of himself." Shiro said, Shinji's gaze snapped up to the man, who started playing a montage video of what amounted to unit ones greatest flops, the Eva falling over its face impacting the ground, or being flung around by its ankles by the fourth Angel Shamshel, all accompanied by dubbed in comedy sound effects, which caused the hall to fill with mirthful laughter, and made Shinji wish the floor would open and swallow him up.

That the man appeared quite oblivious to the fact Shinji was sat in the audience, with the spotlight only highlighting Ritsuko, left the boy red faced with embarrassment, Misato stood up spitting an expletive as she looked ready to storm the stage and assault the smug Shiro.

It was however an American voice that boomed across the hall, and wiped the smug grin off Tokita's face, "Sir that is out of order! If you have something to say to the pilot say it in private, or better yet to his face!" Carrington boomed, coming to stand next to Shinji, the speaker stared dumbstruck as he realised the target of his barbs was sat in the room.

Shinji felt a feral grin split his face hidden behind his hands, as he realised the shoe was now most firmly on the other foot, and couldn't help but enjoy the brash man's discomfort, Shiro stood there mouth working like an over grown fish as he tried to recover from this major faux pas.

"If anything, the people in this room owe mister Ikari here, a debt of gratitude for his hard work and sacrifice!" the elder man said before beginning to applaud, Shinji once again felt his face heat up as the room joined in, and soon it was a full on standing ovation, Misato's hands coming together as she joined in, a smile on her face as the poor boy momentarily stole the show.

* * *

><p>"Damn him!" Misato shrieked, as she introduced her foot to the unfortunate locker, "he wasn't satisfied with trying to humiliate Nerv, he had to have a dig at Shinji too!" she lashed out, her face red and angry, "I want to rip his face off and stuff it in this locker!" she finished, whilst kicking the poor locker door in.<p>

"Calm down will you?" Ritsuko said, glancing at her friend with irritation, "That man is a child, playing foolish games of one ups man ship, he'll get his soon enough." She muttered the last part quietly, Misato ceased in her attack on the locker and turned to eye the scientist.

"Yeah but how did that smug SOB find out about the AT field?! And where in the hell did he get that footage from?!" Misato exclaimed, recalling Shiro's affirmation that they could solve the problem of the Angels barrier, Ritsuko shrugged as she burned her copy of the Jet Alones technical guide pamphlet, "that is an unfortunate breach of security. It certainly isn't the first is it?" She answered.

Misato stared at her reflection in the mirror as she stood beside the bottle blonde scientist, "Internal security must be dragging their ass's big time!" Misato snarked, she turned her gaze to the door where she knew Shinji was sat outside with Sato, "I'm just hoping this doesn't bust his confidence, After how far he's come, I'll kill that idiot myself if Shinji starts regressing." She spoke, dropping her voice to a fierce whisper.

"He'll bounce back, besides I think he's quite taken with his new American friend." Ritsuko said reassuringly, Misato chuckled at the memory of the boy trying on Carrington's hat, the Stetson had been a tad too big falling over the boys ears and hiding his eye, much to the elder man's amusement.

The man had proven a blessing, having turned Shiro's little stunt against him, and somehow keeping Shinji from hobbling red faced from the auditorium, he had regaled the boy with tails of American society and historical information from before second impact, the boy listening rapt at the description of the huge theme park in Florida, that had sadly been lost during the catastrophic event, or the great western plains where cattle had once roamed in great numbers.

"Thousand yen says he starts imitating the guy by the end of the week." Misato said slyly, Ritsuko looked at her friend before stating emphatically, "No deal!" the two women managed to share a laugh at that, the idea of Shinji effecting a American accent seeming quite funny to them both.

* * *

><p>Standing in the main control room fifteen minutes later, Misato glanced at her charge as he sat in his wheel chair, the boys head kept drooping tiredly, but he was in Misato's opinion being a real trooper after all the excitement he'd had, what made her grin though was the filthy looks the boy kept shooting Tokita, who was in the process of guiding traffic with his tech's, the boy was quite thoroughly put out with the man, and Misato couldn't really blame him.<p>

The four of them were stood off to one side, while everyone else crowded round the observation windows like over excited school kids, outside stood the massive tower they had passed coming in and as they watched it split down the middle, the two half's parting to reveal the cream and red coloured robot from the animatic, "Ooh look a giant robot! I've never seen one of those before!" Shinji spat, with sarcastic venom causing Misato to double over laughing.

Shiro's voice once again sounded through the chamber as the control rods extended from the Jet Alones back, and its visor like face lit up, "We're ready to begin the Jet Alone activation test." He announced in his smugly self-important way, "Don't worry folks, there's no risk at all." Shinji glared at the man before flicking his gaze back to the large segmented window, outside of which stood the ape like contraption, "Famous last words." He muttered under his breath, watching as the techs went through the walk cycle initiation, she swore she heard the boy saying "Please fall over!" Several times and shook her head reminding herself never to get on Shinji's bad side.

The colossal robot took a couple of steps forwards, "Hoo boy! It's walking! That's really something huh?!" Misato said, with as much sarcasm as she could muster, Ritsuko on the other hand was staring intently at the machine as if waiting for something, from behind them an alarm beeped at the control station.

"What's wrong?" Shiro was heard to ask, "This is odd the pressure inside the reactor is increasing." The first tech said, Shinji's head turned along with Misato's towards the tech crew, "Temperature in the primary coolant system is also rising." Misato began to walk towards their location as Shiro ordered the insertion of the neutron deceleration fluid, "Fuck up in isle twelve." She heard Shinji grumble, this nearly caused her to fall face first to the floor.

"No effect! The pump output isn't increasing!" tech one reported alarm growing in his voice, outside the Jet Alone continued its steady advance towards the control centre, "All right! Emergency stop! Cut off the power!" Shiro said, agitation finally breaking into his voice, "abort signal transmission confirmed!" Came the response.

The second tech looked at his screen, fear etched on his face, "It's not accepting it! The signal is being blocked!" he yelled full on panic setting in, "it's out of control!" the first tech added needlessly, Shiro stared at the approaching mecha fear and confusion written on his face, "This can't be happening!" he moaned helplessly.

However it was happening, and as one of the tech's screamed that it was coming right at them, the foot of the massive robot came crashing through the ceiling, narrowly missing Misato who glared at the departing foot as it lifted back up, leaving a boot shaped piece of the ceiling behind it, "this robots as badly behaved as the idiot who built it!" she yelled shaking her fist, Shinji looked up from his wheel chair and steepled his fingers, "I think it's broken." The boy said, and Misato wondered what medication he'd been given this morning.

"Pressure valves are behaving irregular!" came a panic stricken shout from tech one, "the control rods are none operational, there is a very real risk of meltdown occurring!" He concluded looking to Shiro for guidance, as the rogue robot continued its path unabated smashing through the rest of the complex, but the man was stood staring vacantly at the hole left by the machines passing, "The system is programmed for every contingency! This simply can't be happening!" Shiro cried out despairingly.

* * *

><p>Shinji watched as Misato argued with Shiro and his techs, watching bemusedly as the man made several frantic phone calls, in order to get permission for Misato to have access to the special code, which would shut the robot down internally, it was quite farcical the boy mused, as the man became more and more agitated with each phone call.<p>

Finally he announced that a letter was being sent out, with written permission for him to disclose the password, "bureaucratic bullshit at its worst I'm afraid." Came Carrington's voice as he strode over, "You ok son?" the man asked, the fourteen year old nodded, "though I think Mr Tokita may need some new underwear." Shinji quipped, causing Carrington to belly laugh.

"I'm gonna head over see what we can do to stop that oversized tin can." The man said ruffling the boys hair as he departed, Shinji grinned as he watched the man leave turning to look at Ritsuko who seemed oddly none exultant in the unfortunate backfire of Jet Alone, if it made Shiro look more of an idiot than Shinji, then that was something the boy could live with.

Moments later Carrington and Misato returned, the man looking at Misato with a mixture of admiration and longing, "It's a mad plan you have there little miss!" he said with a wry chuckle, "oh if I were only thirty years younger." This caused Misato to bat her eye lashes at him.

"So what's the plan Misato?" Shinji asked, Misato knelt down and explained exactly what she planned to do, Ritsuko leaned in suddenly interested, but Shinji could only stare at Misato fear gripping his heart, "That's insane!" the boy exclaimed, his amusement at the robots failure disappearing.

* * *

><p>Mari Makinami's morning had been all in all pretty boring stuff she had to admit, despite much begging and pleading on her part and copious eye lash fluttering, she had been told that she would not be attending the Expo as frankly there wasn't room in the VTOL for her, and so the Brit lass had sat nibbling her toast and pouting, while Misato's pet penguin had downed his sardines from a bowl, when he had cracked open a can of Yebisu, Mari had stared at Pen-Pen in astonishment.<p>

Shinji had stammered several apologies to Mari which had caused the girl no end of amusement, and in the end as he was heading out the door she had planted a cheeky kiss on the boys forehead, this had the intended effect of letting the boy know she wasn't mad at him, while also sending him off blushing furiously.

School would have been an utter bore fest, had she not opened her locker and been nearly drowned in letters, each one proclaiming one boy or another's great love of her, fortunately the class rep Hikari had been on hand to help her tidy up, Mari would read the stuff later but she had her eyes on another prize altogether, and wondered how she would gently let these boys down.

Their teacher stayed true to form, and began blathering on about post second impact, sending the entire class except Hikari to sleep and causing Mari to wonder if anyone actually learned anything in class 2-A, she had turned her attention to the web chat, and had ended up in a lengthy conversation with Kensuke and Suzuhara about where Shinji was off to, the boy's apparently apoplectic at Nerv's seeming recklessness.

Which brought her to where she was now, sat in a special military transport plane outfitted to carry the Evangelion to distant combat zones, listening to Misato's completely mad as a bag of glue sniffing hamster's plan to save the city of Atsugi, towards which a rogue automaton that doubled as a nuclear bomb was making a bee line for.

"So I have to put you on the back of Metal Mickie there, and then hold it up while you get inside it?" She asked one eyebrow raised, "Then pretty much hope to God you can shut it down, before it blows up taking you with it?" she finalised, this being Misato's scheme in a nutshell.

Sitting opposite her in a radiation suit she had liberated from the Tech crew, Misato nodded that this was indeed the basic idea, "You don't have to worry Mari. Unit one's AT field and armour should handle the blast if anything goes wrong." The older woman finished, Mari frowned crossing her arms across the chest of her new pink and white coloured plug suit, "It's not me I'm worried about boss lady!" she exclaimed.

"I know Mari, but I have to try and stop that thing, my conscience won't allow anything else." She explained calmly, she turned to address Lieutenant Makoto Hyuga, the bespectacled twenty something male who was presently flying the aircraft, "Hyuga! As soon as unit one is deployed take the transport up to a safe altitude and standby!" she instructed her chief aide.

The man responded with an affirmative, and Misato turned her attention back to Mari who seemed to have figured something out, "You wouldn't be pulling this stunt, if you weren't sure someone would be there to take care of puppy boy." She said, a somewhat darkly amused expression on her face, Misato had the decency to blush at this causing Mari to chuckle wryly.

In the end it had been Carrington Mari was told, who had bullied Shiro into giving up the passcode that would allow route access to Jet Alones on board computer system, she hadn't been given all the details but the man had apparently held something over the executives head to get him to co-operate.

Sliding off her seat Mari made her way to the waiting entry plug of unit one, however not before adding, "If you die out there, I'm telling on you!" Misato grinned putting her game face on, "then I best not die then huh? Wouldn't want the commander to have to spank me!" she responded before a shudder of revulsion passed down both females backs.

Misato rose and made her way to the Evangelion's left hand, which would transport her down to ground level, "at least this new plug suit fits my chest." was Mari's last comment before entering the Eva, and moments later they were ready to drop.

* * *

><p>Mari let out a whoop of joy as the Eva entered freefall once released from the transport, a feral grin split her face as she tucked the massive cyborgs legs into position, and braced herself for the impact, the Eva's feet contacted the ground sending chunks of earth spraying up, this was of course made all the more spectacular due to the Eva's momentum carrying it backwards for a few seconds, ploughing a giant furrow through the farmers field she had set down in.<p>

Once she had the massive cyborg steadied, and had made sure Misato had made it down with her ok, she launched the Eva into a full on sprint, one arm held close with her precious cargo, the other pumping vigorously as she chased after the oversized dustbin of doom, or Metal Mickie as she had so named it, to their immediate right the sun was slowly reaching the three o'clock mark, while Jet Alone and the Eva raced across the fields, in the distance Mari could make out Atsugi city rapidly approaching.

Above them she watched as the transport plane banked away to a safe distance, and turned her gaze back to Jet Alone, "all right Evangelion unit one! It's our first mission together!" she said, Mari was positively chomping at the bit to get within range of the target, "Just remember not to lose focus here!" Misato warned her.

Every step of her mighty steed was leaving massive footprints, that gave testimony to the passing of the giant human creation, Mari felt the thrill of the hunt take hold as blood and adrenalin thundered through her veins, "Oh this is gonna be fun!" she breathed excitedly, finally she caught up to the silly looking machine, its hands and legs pistoning back and forth looking for all the world like it was going for a speedy stroll in the countryside.

Finally reaching Jet Alone, she heard Misato's voice being transmitted from the radiation suits communication device directly to the Eva's entry plug, "Put me on now! We only have four minutes!" Mari nodded her acknowledgement the motion being mimicked by the purple horned robot, and sent the Eva's free hand shooting out to snare a conveniently located hand hold on Jet Alones back, this had the comical effect of causing the rogue robots arms to piston back and forth rapidly in an attempt to re-establish its forward momentum.

Underneath her Mari could feel the earth breaking up at her Eva's feet, thanks to the neural connection between her and unit one, and she realised she couldn't hold the machine for too much longer, "Don't think just do it!" Misato yelled, and reaching with the Eva's left hand Mari gently set Misato down on Jet Alones back.

Misato had barely taken two steps towards the emergency hatch where she would gain access to Jet Alones innards, when the handle Mari had a grip on broke off causing the robot to lurch forwards, this had the rather unfortunate side effect, of causing the woman to tumble off the side of the eighty metre robot with a scream of terror, "Oh crap! Shoddy workmanship!" the girl cried out.

Mari felt her heart leap into her throat at the sight of the older woman tumbling, and made to catch her when she saw Misato manage to grab the rung of a service ladder arresting her fall, "Try to be more careful ok?" Mari said causing her captain to make a v sign while grinning up at her, Mari watched as she heaved herself back to the top of the marching machines back, and opened the access hatch, "Talk about hot! I have a bad feeling about this!" Mari heard her say, before descending into the belly of the beast.

Turning her attention to her target, Mari narrowed her eyes and sprinted in front of it, she spun the Eva round to face the robot one hand slamming into the visor which amounted to its face, the other against its shoulder, and pushed against the wretched walking dustbin in an effort to slow it down, Mari was painfully aware that her Eva's battery timer was ticking down, "God this robot is annoying! Stop moving or I'll rip your damn legs off!" she yelled in frustration, indeed it did stop, arms once again pistoning frantically, however now coolant was beginning to vent from the armour of her opponent, "Not good at all, you might want to hurry up in there!" Mari yelled desperately.

A few moments later Mari heard the woman's voice call out despairingly over the communications that the password had been rejected, "Error?! What the hell?!" the older woman's voice came through, "The program must have been altered! It must have!" Misato could be heard saying disbelievingly, behind unit one the ground was once again giving way beneath its feet causing her to nearly slip.

Mari blanched at the implications of what Misato had said, if someone had altered the Jet Alones programing then this meant only one possible thing, "Sabotage!" she breathed, someone had clearly wanted this test to fail and spectacularly, coolant was now jetting out of multiple joints, and the armour was beginning to buckle and twist in places as the systems internal coolant overheated, and was forced towards the surface.

Unit one's hands danced over the surface of the other robot in a desperate bid to keep the coolant from escaping, Mari found herself growing more and more desperate as she realised the inevitable would soon be here, a nuclear meltdown.

"Get the hell out of there Boss lady!" Mari yelled, a mental image of her having to come home, and break the news to a heartbroken Shinji that his guardian was dead flashed through her head, this whole situation had stopped being fun and had long since turned deadly, Mari found herself railing against how unfair it was, that Misato would have to pay for someone else treachery.

Then as suddenly as it had started, the rogue Jet Alone sagged forwards its control rods sliding back into the unit, Mari blinked as the machine slumped forwards like a puppet with its strings cut, the timing was near perfect, for she only had about thirty seconds of power left to her Eva, "Misato? You alive in there? Misato?!" Mari yelled.

The woman's voice came back over the radio, to confirm that indeed she was still alive and intact and Mari sagged in her seat, relief flooded through her as she switched unit one into low gain mode, "Whatever you did it worked! It's a miracle!" the girl exclaimed, but in the back of her mind still lingered one fact, that this seemed to have had been a deliberate act of sabotage.

* * *

><p>Misato woke up, her eyes fluttering open as she lay on her back for a few moments letting the events of the previous day catch up, JHC was to all intents and purposes finished, with the disastrous failure of their Jet Alone project the company was on the verge of bankruptcy, Shiro Tokita had not been seen or heard from since the recovery process had begun.<p>

Misato sighed as she thought of all the people who were now going to lose their jobs, all as a result of this fiasco, the only good thing to come out of the whole thing was that nobody had been killed, she figured Shiro had in all likely hood taken the easy way out instead of dealing with it.

Standing up and kicking an errant beer can out of her path, she headed out of her room better described as a bomb site, and into the kitchen, there she watched as Pen-Pen was in the middle of devouring his breakfast from his bowl, a sardine sliding down his gullet. Sat at the table were Shinji and Mari chatting quietly to each other, the boy had a piece of half eaten toast in his right hand, and Misato couldn't help the sly smile that broke out on her face, as she noticed how the boy blushed when speaking to the girl.

"Good morning." She yawned sleepily, as she sank into her seat at the dining table, Mari slid a can of Yebisu along the table to her, and Misato indulged in her usual morning routine, "Oh yeah! Nothing like a cold one to start the day!" she whooped joyfully having demolished the beverage in one go, she noted the somewhat disapproving look on Shinji's face, and the amused one on Mari's.

"It's like feeding an elephant on strawberries." Mari giggled, causing Misato to humph, Shinji shrugged in a none committal way and resumed eating his toast, Misato let out a fake sigh of annoyance, before reaching over and scuffing the boys hair, causing him to squawk in irritation, "we really need to get you to relax more kiddo, otherwise the Halloween parties gonna be a bummer." Misato said.

Mari's eyes lit up at this announcement as she sat cross legged in her chair, dressed in an oversized black t-shirt and a pair of denim shorts looking like a comical cat girl, "There's gonna be a party?!" she squealed excitedly, Misato nodded and pointed to the calendar where she had placed a mark, "It's a ways off but yeah gonna have us a fancy dress party!" she announced cheerfully.

Shinji seemed to ponder this turn of events, and then looked down at his prosthetic arm, "well I guess my outfit is already sorted out." The boy said, reaching up to run his fingers over his eye patch, "maybe I can get a fake white cat, and go as a spy villain." He finished with a chuckle.

Misato stared at the boy, remembering his unintentional mimicking of the commander the previous day before shaking her head in the negative, "Oh no kiddo, you have to go as a super cool hero character!" this had Mari nodding in agreement, the boy shrugged before saying, "well you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." He said in a faux American accent, before then smiling a lopsided smile, his head tilted in such a way that it caused Misato's heart to lurch.

For a few moments she was back in her college dorm room, looking at someone else who had used a very similar smile, all Shinji needed was a pony tail and longer hair and he could be the man's younger double, well minus the arm and the eye patch, for a few seconds Misato's brain took her to forbidden places but she pulled herself back, "Misato you ok?" Mari asked a note of concern in her voice, the older woman shook herself off, "yeah, was just remembering something that's all." She said telling a half truth.

Jumping to her feet, the raven haired woman fished round in a drawer till she came out with a digital camera, and turned pointing to Mari, "Get yourself next to Shinji I want a photograph of you two!" She said, smiling as the girl leapt to her feet and moved to the boys side, Mari hung one arm over the boys shoulder bending down to do so.

For his part Shinji did actually smile a genuine smile as he gently took hold of Mari's free hand, and they both looked towards the camera, "Say cheese!" Misato said before clicking the button, she checked the photo on the camera's screen and smiled showing it to the two teens, "perfect!" she crowed.

* * *

><p>Elias made his way to the hotel room where his target was staying in Atsugi city, a small dark smile on his face as he considered the upcoming conversation he was to have, his boss had given him his marching orders, and though Elias was normally more a man of action even he could appreciate the beauty of the plan in question, of course that was assuming his target hadn't killed himself yet.<p>

Arriving at the correct door, he banged on the old style wooden portal and waited patiently, sure enough after a while a tired voice from within asked who it was, and Elias informed the man of his identity and that he had a business proposition for him, he watched as the door opened slightly still on its chain, and a nervous wreck of a Japanese man peered out at him apprehensively.

Not even fifteen hours removed from the disastrous test run of Jet Alone, Shiro Tokita looked like hell, the man's eyes were bloodshot and his breath stank of cheap Sake, "Blimey you look like shit mate!" Elias said with a small amount of sympathy, to his surprise the man stepped back with a shrug, unlatching the door and allowing him into the small hotel room, "If you're here to kill me, you'll be doing me a favour." The broken looking man said in a matter of fact way.

The place was a dump to put it politely, an old western style hotel with a couch, a small table with a seat, a double bed which appeared unslept in, and on which sat a newspaper featuring a front page article on the recent Jet Alone test, the piece made mention of Nerv's intervention to stop the rogue machine, and in particular demonising Shiro Tokita as a recklessly incompetent buffoon, while lionising Captain Katsuragi for her role in stopping the out of control machine.

On the couch tucked only slightly under a pillow, was what appeared to be a Walther PPK pistol, Shiro had apparently been in the process of working himself up to pull the trigger, "looks like I caught you just in the nick of time then?" Elias asked dryly, taking a seat and handing Shiro the folder he was carrying, "as you already know, it's been a rough day." The man replied humourlessly.

The man took the folder pulling up the small chair and slumping into it, "what can I do for you Mister Stanton?" Tokita asked in a listless dead voice, Elias sat forwards smiling as pleasantly as the New Zealander could manage, yet somehow still looking like a shark about to maul his prey, "My employer has a proposition for you, one that will hopefully reduce the layoffs at your company by a good bit."

This had the man's attention immediately and Shiro seemed to perk up a bit, "I'm listening." The Japanese man said, Elias grinned pointing to the folder he had given him, "In there are prototypes for new weapons systems and combat tech, the research is completed on them all they need are field tests and manufacturing." He watched as the man opened the folder and poured over its contents.

The man's eyes skimmed over the pages and diagrams with a look of increasing interest, "I am assuming that this whole venture is a black project?" Tokita asked, but his eyes were now focused and already Elias could see the man running mental calculations, "yes." He said simply, "However, in addition to buying out the remains of JHC we can offer you two more things."

Shiro looked up intrigued tilting his head, "what would that be?" and Elias couldn't keep the grin off his face as he reeled the man in, "Information, and a chance for payback!" Elias said gesturing grandly, "What if I told you Nerv sabotaged your Jet Alone system?" the expression on Shiro's face darkened, "I had wondered at that." Shiro said flatly, "I take it all staff will have to sign a NDA punishable by termination?" Tokita enquired, empathising "termination" and receiving a nod, he took the offered pen and placed his signature on the contract provided in the folder, "I'll scout the best and brightest from JHC, just give me the numbers I need to work with." he said simply, suddenly all business, "Welcome aboard Mr Tokita." Elias said shaking the man's hand.

As he left the hotel proper Elias allowed a genuine smile to creep onto his face, one no less creepy then his false one, he had baited the trap and Tokita had jumped at the opportunity without really thinking it through, much like his employer had said he would, the weapons system's he would be building would prove very useful for his further ventures in the coming months.

That his boss had discovered the intended sabotage, but then had decided to take advantage of the situation, reminded him of what a far sighted person his boss was, Elias was smarter than the average grunt but this industrial espionage stuff was beyond him.

Pulling out his cell phone he made the call, "Just like you said. He went for it hook, line and sinker!" he chuckled, he listened to the instructions from the other man before hanging up again, the Ikari boy was no longer a viable target it seemed, and he would now have to do some digging to see if there was another potential avenue, his gaze travelled to one of the seedier brothels in the district, Elias was feeling in a very good mood, as he headed towards the den of iniquity to spend some well-earned coinage.


	4. Nightmares, regrets and redheads

**Fate**

Nightmares, regrets and redheads

Mari lay awake staring at the ceiling of her room listening carefully for the noise that had woken her up, slipping her glasses on her face, the teenager glanced at her digital clock which read thirteen minutes past twelve in the morning, it was the night following on from the Jet Alone incident, and tomorrow they were off on a four hour flight to meet the second child.

The Katsuragi apartment Mari had learned over the course of the last two weeks, had its own symphony of subtle little noises at night, the hum of the refrigerator, and the sound of the automatic air conditioning as it kicked in.

Something outside the usual spectrum of nightly noises had woken her up however, and she sat up got to her feet and moved to her bedroom door sliding it open, glancing into the hall at the end of which her small room sat, she peered towards the living room area and spotted Pen-Pen in the gloom standing by the kitchen door, the bird had apparently heard something as well his head cocked, and an almost human expression of concern on his bird face.

Mari was just about to give it up and head back to her bed when she heard it, a plaintive terrified whimpering sound that could have come from only one location, and one person, stepping out into the hall dressed in just a pair of black pyjama shorts and a t-shirt, she tiptoed towards Shinji's room, glancing at the door to Misato's room she could make out no audible sign of the older woman stirring, and so turned towards the boys bedroom as another frightened whimper sounded from within.

Sliding the door open she quickly stepped inside, closing the door behind her and switching on the bedroom light, as her eyes adjusted to the light she took in the scene before her, Shinji's legs were tangled in his blanket and he was twisting and turning in his disturbed sleep, Mari could see beads of sweat on the other teens forehead, and his face was locked in a grimace of fear.

Reaching his side she perched herself on the edge of Shinji's bed, feeling a nervous pit of anxiety well up in her as she did so, pushing this unwelcome feeling to one side she placed her hands on the boys shoulders, and began to gently shake him to wake him up, "mmmhhh! Nooo!" the boy mumbled, his right hand twitching as he slowly was drawn from his sleep.

Mari sat waiting patiently as the boy lay gathering himself, looking round his room in confusion eye blinking rapidly, as his mind tried to shake off the memory of whatever had plagued him, "Mari?" the boy asked fearfully, her soft hand stroking his cheek caused the boy to relax, "Nightmare?" the girl softly enquired as the boy sat up drawing his legs up to his chest, and wrapping his right arm round them, his prosthetic sat on its stand on his computer desk.

"Yeah." Came the response after a time, sighing Mari pulled the boy into an embrace smiling at the initial resistance he put up, his head came to rest gently on her shoulder and she rocked him back and forth soothingly, "want to talk about it? Think you'll find it helps." She said, one hand gently stroking the back of his neck.

"I was back in the car, pinned again, dropped my stupid pen, did I ever tell you? That's how my arm was in the wrong place, at the wrong time." The boy let out a self-depreciating laugh, "I was reaching down for it, when the other car hit." He muttered, as if it were somehow his fault, "I could see the guy coming at me with the gun, and I couldn't move, couldn't run away!" The boy continued a shiver passing down his spine.

"Your brain was always gonna have to deal with it sooner or later puppy." Mari said softly with sympathy, the boy let out a sad sigh that had a bit of a quivering quality to it, as he clutched at the back of her shirt tears welling in his eye, Mari decided then and there to do something she had sworn she would never do again, "Come on, you can stay in with me tonight." She said smiling as the boys eyes widened in surprise, "You sure? I wouldn't want to be a problem." He said.

Mari chuckled and held out her right hand extending her baby finger, "But you have to pinkie swear, no funny business." She said for once entirely serious, the boy looked at her askance, and Mari took the time to explain the concept, linking his own finger with hers he promised, "No funny business, I swear."

Untangling his blanket she picked it up and took his hand guiding him towards the door, she flipped his light off, and began to make playfully exaggerated sneaking steps back towards her room, "Shhh! Don't wake the sleeping beastie!" She whispered, drawing a quiet chuckle from Shinji despite his nervousness.

They hadn't taken more than a few steps when Misato slid open her door, a tired but also slightly annoyed expression on her face, "Beastie? And just where do you think your taking Shinji?" though this last part had a playful edge to it, "Nightmare." The girl said, pointing her thumb at the boy who looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a Robin Reliant.

"Fine. But no funny business you two." Misato huffed, "got enough problems round here without starting a nursery." This last comment caused Shinji to splutter and blush to his roots, Mari snickered as Misato disappeared back into her den, grumbling about early starts and long flights.

Mari tugged the now nervous boy towards her room shaking her head at Misato's antics, and felt her anxiety from before returning anew, sliding the door closed behind them she turned to Shinji, "Ok puppy you first under my blanket." She ordered, the boy complied sliding onto the futon looking as nervous as she herself was now feeling, Mari lay down on top of her blanket and pulled Shinji's over herself, "there we go." She said laying an arm over him and smiling, "No coping a feel though, or I'll chop your other arm off." Mari finished, only semi joking.

Shinji nodded before yawning sleepily, "I won't, I promise." He said gently, reaching up the boy removed the girls glasses and placed them someplace they wouldn't get stood on, Mari purred at his words, her earlier worry disappearing as she watched his eye slowly slide shut, she lay there watching him as his breathing evened out sighing as his features relaxed into the picture of innocence, "Night puppy." She murmured softly, before she herself closed her eyes and succumbed to sleep.

* * *

><p>Rain slashed through the late evening sky as the VTOL carrying Shinji, Mari and Misato made its way towards the United Nations pacific fleet, which was presently sat at berth at Sasebo military dock, the fleet was scheduled to set off again shortly after they arrived and would hopefully reach New Yokosuka tomorrow evening.<p>

The fleet was transporting Evangelion unit two and its pilot from Germany to Japan, the rain spattered against the VTOL's canopy in a constant deluge, it was nearing the end of its near four hour flight and Mari sat reading a redacted version of the the second child's profile, what she did have access to was not terribly encouraging, while Mari herself was not as completely psychologically undamaged as some thought her to be, the second child was a basket case compared to Mari.

The plan was for them to get on-board the Nimitz-class super aircraft carrier, Over the rainbow early and hopefully get to know the vibrant young red head, a transport chopper would drop off the power cabling along with Shinji's bodyguard, plus of course the dynamic duo of Toji and Kensuke tomorrow, the latter two had been promised a field trip out of sorts, it also helped disguise the nature of Sato's trip, although the woman had expressed her concerns over the two.

However given that Asuka appeared on paper to be akin to a neurotic Bengali tiger with rabies, Mari had slim hopes for the getting to know part, the girl appeared to strive to be the best at everything and would not tolerate anyone getting praise that she felt she should have, to top it off she also seemed to have a pronounced mean streak in her, as well as vaguely antisocial behavioural tendencies.

Mari turned her head to observe Shinji, who was sat staring out the other window and allowed herself a moment of concern, the boy would almost inevitably come into conflict with the red headed pilot and Mari's hands were somewhat tied, she had been instructed to be polite and courteous to the newcomer but if she laid a finger on her puppy the gloves would be off.

Mari had admitted to herself that her feelings for the boy, who normally wouldn't say boo to a mouse were continuing to grow ever stronger since she had first met him, while she had found him initially adorable as the nickname she had given him showed, she had come to know the boy better and in coming to know him had felt the first stirrings of attraction towards him, Mari found that the boys eye patch actually added to his appeal giving him a certain debonair look and as for the arm, well she wasn't so shallow as to let herself be put off by that.

Whereas most girls Mari knew chased and swooned after the bad boys and rule breakers at school, she had learned from bitter experience that perhaps it was the quiet ones, the ones that flew under the radar who were a better choice to go for. Opposites attracting in the case of Mari Makinami, however she was not going to rush into things and make a mess of it, her own past causing her to worry what the boy might think of her if he knew what mistakes she had made.

A week after she had moved in with Misato and Shinji, Mari had pulled the older woman to one side for a girl to girl chat, Shinji had gone off to bed and Mari had found herself uncharacteristically nervous, but at the same time determined, she had never been in a position to talk to another woman one to one about the one thing that had haunted her.

Sitting on the couch next to Misato, her legs pulled up to her chest and chewing absently at her hair Mari had slowly begun to talk, recounting the past to her new guardian who she had hoped would understand or offer a point of view, when it had come to what she viewed as her biggest regret in life, she had found herself momentarily at a loss as to how to get the words out but finally somehow she had managed it.

She had told of how when she was thirteen, she had been very much enamoured of a much older boy called Mark, the American boys blonde hair and boyish good looks had turned girls heads everywhere at Bethany base, he had lavished time and attention on Mari, making her think she was the only woman in the world that he looked at, her status as an Eva pilot had no doubt helped with Mari's own personal allure, she could never have contemplated that he was in essence, grooming her.

He had been witty and charming, as well as fiercely intelligent, his grey eyes shining with what she had thought was love and affection for her, and the more time she spent with him the more she would have jumped into a raging volcano for him had he simply asked it, then had come the fateful night he had asked her to come to his quarters and he had asked her to sleep with him, Mari had known in her heart it was wrong, that they could both get into trouble but she had eventually caved in to his pressuring and vaguely concealed threats.

Mari had grimaced at how stupid and naive she had been back then, giving up her innocence for what she had believed was the true love of a young man but was in reality nothing but paedophilic lust for an underage girl, a chance to score with a teenager.

Forty eight hours later he was in japan, having known he was being transferred to the project E devision under doctor Ritsuko Akagi, texting her that it had been fun but they wouldn't be seeing each other again, oh and "to not say anything as his grandfather could end her career", the one and only relief to come out of that whole sorry affair had been that she had not gotten pregnant, that she had mused might have been too much to bare.

Mari had been utterly devastated at the time, realising she had allowed herself to be used in such a revolting fashion, she had turned into a bundle of self-loathing rage and had thrown herself into her piloting in an effort to forget the young man who had taken her heart, her innocence and her self-respect grinding all three into the dirt, when word had come back from Nerv Japan that Mark had been killed in an apparent suicide, it hadn't remotely struck her as odd how funny she had found that, she had felt no sympathy for her abuser at all.

Mari had carried the bitterness and anger around within her, until one fateful day when she met a certain UN special inspector, who had apparently read her early profile and was confounded by Mari's sudden and nasty change in attitude and behaviour, over the course of his stay at Bethany base the man had slowly managed to get close to the girl, weathering insult and assault until eventually he coaxed her into talking about what was troubling her.

His easy going manner and gentle eyes that told her he had suffered his own fair share of pain and loss, had gradually drawn the girls trauma from her like poison from a festering wound, an angry sobbing Mari confessing what she had perceived as her sins, pouring her heart out to the man and awaiting judgement and condemnation, he had given her story careful consideration before gently pulling her into an embrace, rocking the broken girl back and forth as she cried bitter tears, telling her that while she had certainly been naïve and foolish, the fault lay entirely with the man for taking advantage of those things, "Anger is like an acid, that does more harm to the vessel carrying it, than to those it is poured upon." He had sagely told her, words she had taken to heart in the months to come.

He had been the one to slowly start the process, one of bringing the brunette back from the self-loathing and despair, which had seemed to threaten to consume her very soul, always quick with his wit and his charm she had caught herself very nearly falling in love with someone older than her again and had rapidly checked herself, the man was in his late twenties nearly thirty and too old for her, but heaven help her if he hadn't been a blessing for the wounded young girl.

It had been through this and agreeing to seek counselling, that Mari had eventually accepted and moved past what had happened to her, the bubbly energetic girl had slowly remerged from behind the veil of self-loathing and anger, her friend as she had come to consider the man, had stayed in touch dropping by whenever he was at the base on business for the UN or the IPEA to check over Evangelion unit five.

Misato had listened to Mari a look of genuine surprise on her face, but that had slowly turned to one of compassion, the older woman had hugged her seemingly finally understanding what drove Mari's need to be the caring person she was, to show respect wherever possible, "He must have been a real gem." Misato had said at the end, tears in her eyes, Mari had nodded responding, "He's one in a million."

Then of course there had come one Shinji Ikari into her life, here was a young man who while not having suffered the exact same trauma as herself had certainly been badly used, his indifferent father dragging him into a conflict the gentle boy had wanted nothing to do with, this after having discarded the boy like trash, Shinji's own heart had been walled off from the world as a defence mechanism against being hurt, a kindred spirit of sorts Mari had realised.

She had initially been merely curious about the boy when she had read his profile upon being requisitioned by Nerv, but seeing him in his hospital bed in person, and spending a week interacting with him she had rapidly grown very fond of the shy creature, she had decided early on that she would help the boy out and try to heal him in the same way she had been helped, it had been to her immense surprise to find herself starting to slowly fall for Shinji, something that did scare her a little.

Last night had been a test for herself, as well as an attempt to comfort Shinji, she had wanted to know if she really was over what had happened, even though she had made the boy swear a pinkie oath, she had suspected he would not do anything that would offend her, indeed she suspected the boy was sexually repressed which concerned both her and Misato when she had voiced her theory, however the fact that she had managed to sleep through the night and wake up to Shinji's peaceful angelic face, had been a balm for the girls lingering anxiety's.

Closing the folder on Asuka she sighed, the red head had obviously not been encouraged or had refused to seek help and was the bundle of angry competitiveness awaiting them, she handed the folder back to Misato as she once again turned her focus to Shinji, who sensing her gaze turned to her a small smile on his face, Mari scooted over putting her arm round the boys shoulder and looked out the window, truth be told there wasn't much to see thanks to the weather.

"Ugh, Rain rain go away." She said in a singsong voice, as the engines began to lower in pitch signalling their decent downwards, finally she could make out the military port playing house to the fleet and the massive aircraft carrier, "Somewhere over the rainbow." She began to sing softly.

Shinji peered out the window, his cheek pressing against hers causing Mari to smile at the contact, "I hear the second child has a personality you'll simply die from." Mari said with a giggle, Shinji glanced at her with a puzzled expression on his face, "you mean die for right?" behind them Misato snorted in amusement at the joke.

* * *

><p>Slipping into her waterproof mac and helping Shinji with his, Mari watched as the ladder hatch was lowered and they prepared to disembark, all three had packed a carryall with a change of clothing and in Mari's case, a spare plug suit for emergency use, not to mention a handy little medical pack for Shinji.<p>

Stepping out into the rain, which showed no sign of letting up pattering on the ship's deck and forming puddles here and there, she turned back to look at Shinji to see him looking towards one of the birthed ships, following his gaze the girl noticed the ship had a tarpaulin pulled over the vast majority of its upper deck.

"It's the Eva." The boy said in a faraway voice, his eye looking slightly unfocussed, Mari gently prodded the boy and he seemed to snap back from wherever he had briefly been, "You ok?" she asked concerned, Shinji smiled wanly and nodded, he didn't protest when she took his arm leading him onwards.

They made their way across the flight deck to the main bridge, following Misato's lead up the steps of the large structure, as they stepped inside Mari pulled the hood of her mac back and watched as the other two followed suit.

The captain of the ship, a rotund European gentleman with a prominent moustache, turned along with his first officer to regard the trio with what seemed to be a long suffering glance, Misato handed over her I.D card, certain details on it blacked out such as her age and weight Mari noted with an amused snort, "Thank you, for agreeing to have us taken aboard earlier than expected captain." Misato said politely.

The man looked at the card before running his gaze over Mari and Shinji like they were two ants, he handed the card back to Misato with a shrug of indifference, "Oh no thank you Captain Katsuragi, for allowing me the opportunity to baby sit yet more children!" He responded sarcastically causing Misato to twitch, Mari narrowed her eyes at the British man's attitude but held her tongue.

"The power cable for unit two, is being delivered tomorrow afternoon by transport helicopter, I will need you to sign off on it here." Misato continued in as polite a fashion as she could now muster, handing the man the paperwork, the captain looked at Misato as if she had grown a second head, "activate that toy of yours?! Not on my watch you're under the jurisdiction of the UN Navy now!" Misato turned red looking ready to throttle the ship's captain, "Might I remind you, that in an emergency Nerv's authority supersedes your own."

The grey haired man harrumphed his moustache bristling with the motion, "I don't give a damn about your authority, on this boat I'm in command and you'll do as you're told." The older man stated, Misato looked ready to savagely rip the man's tache off and choke him with it, when a voice that Mari recognised sounded from a doorway leading off the bridge.

"I see you managed to get a rise from the old man, eh Katsuragi?" Misato turned, a horrified expression appearing on her face as the captain turned to address this latest nuisance, "Mr Kaji! I would like you to refrain from just inviting yourself to the bridge!" he bristled.

Standing in the doorway was a man many would consider handsome in his home country, his tie hanging loosely round his collar, hair held back in a ponytail and a permanent five o'clock shadow gracing his features, Ryoji Kaji was the image of what might be considered chilled, sophisticated, relaxed and cool, girls would melt at the man's feet and men aspired to be him, he was also Mari's very dear friend from the UN and as it turned out Misato's ex-boyfriend.

Mari let out a girlish shriek of delight, and ran up to the man throwing her arms around him giving him a big hug, "Kaji! its been way to long!" she exclaimed, a sloppy grin split the man's face as he looked down at her and chuckled, "you've had a growth spurt I see Mari." The older man said, scuffing the girl's hair, "Oi! Hands off the hair!" she growled but there was no malice in it, the girl delighted to see the man who had in a very real way saved her.

Kaji gestured behind him his eyes locking on Misato, "Your likely hungry shall we?" Mari nodded and grabbing Shinji's hand followed the man down the steps to an elevator, Misato bringing up the rear muttering something about nightmares, they entered the elevator and waited as it descended, "What the hell are you doing here?" Misato demanded.

Kaji seemed to take the whole thing in his stride, "I'm on assignment for the UN, escorting Asuka and unit two." Mari broke out into a mischievous smirk and reaching over patted Misato on the backside, this of course had the intended effect, "Hey keep your hands to yourself!" Misato barked spinning on Kaji who glared playfully at Mari one eyebrow raised.

As they entered the dining area, they came face to face with a fourteen year old girl with a head full of red hair, wearing jeans and a tank top, hands on her hips she wasted no time and glared at Mari and Shinji imperiously, Mari braced herself for the oncoming storm, fixing her gaze on Shinji the girl advanced forward until she was nose to nose with the boy, "so you're the daddy's boy who kissed ass to get in an Eva?!" she stated, seeming angry at Shinji for no obvious reason.

Shinji stammered, not at all having expected a face full of irate red head and likely not enjoying his personal space being invaded, this of course seemed to irritate the volatile girl further, "What are you stupid?! Depp!" she yelled, before doing something the others hadn't prepared for, she swept Shinji's legs out from under him, with his shoes still wet he slipped the boy crashing down hard on his left arm.

Shinji let out a cry of pain clutching at his the prosthetic, and Mari dropped down beside him helping him unfasten the straps on his upper arm, Mari had restrained herself from slapping the taste out of the red head's mouth, though flicking her gaze to her she could see the look of shock and confusion on Asuka's face, with his mac on she obviously hadn't spotted the arm, it was Misato who broke the silence getting in the red heads face, much as the girl had done to Shinji.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Asuka?!" Misato's voice was a deadly hiss, for her part Asuka dropped down to the boy's side looking slightly lost, before mumbling something that may or may not have been an apology, however the damage was done leaving Shinji glaring at the girl reproachfully, "Way to go "princess no control", best start ever!" Mari spat angrily at the girl.

Kaji helped the boy back up sitting him at a table and checking his arm over, he had a nasty bruise where he had fallen but thankfully there didn't appear to be too much damage done, Asuka for her part had stared at the stump with a mixture of shame and revulsion, "Gott verdammt!" she spat, before wheeling and fleeing the scene of her self-inflicted shame.

Misato started off after Asuka to find where she had gone, while Mari broke out the medical kit she'd packed containing the Painkillers and cream for the boys skin, "You actually packed that stuff?" the boy asked surprised, Mari smiled gently as she applied the salve, "of course I did puppy, somebody has to take care of you." The boy smiled at this, and accepted the can of soda Kaji offered him to wash down the meds, the man glancing at Mari, his lips forming a small smile.

"So you and Misato have history eh Mr Inspector?" Mari asked playfully, the man seemed to grow a momentarily distant look in his eyes before saying, "It's complicated." He said, a sad smile on his face, Mari sighed knowing that look well as she replaced the boys compression bandage, "You don't mind if I borrow your arm and smack Asuka upside the head with it?" this caused Shinji to nearly snort his soda.

"So you're the famous third child, and I see Mari here is playing nurse maid for you as well, you lucky kid." Kaji said smirking jovially, Shinji finished coughing long enough to nod, "Yeah. I take it you know me through the news and the attack Mr Kaji?" he was surprised when the man shook his head, "you were already famous in the defence business, before that unfortunate incident." Though he didn't elaborate further.

Shinji seemed to ponder this before asking, "What's with that girl?! What did I do?!" he sounded completely confused by why she would assault him like that, "Asuka is certainly a little fire fly that's for sure." Kaji said, Mari nodded in agreement at his assessment before adding, "She certainly has something stuck up her ass!" Shinji for his part, seemed quite mystified by this strange new girl's attitude, which caused Mari to smile.

* * *

><p>Asuka stood at a railing on the lower deck, staring out into the encroaching night as the familiar rumble of the ships engines reverberated through the deck, she stood fuming silently as the rain continued to slash down in sheets, thankfully due to the wind direction none of it hitting her.<p>

Of course she had known about the boy in passing, but Asuka had never been one to read newspapers or watch the news at all since she considered it boring, so while she had known of Shinji Ikari, no one had felt it prudent to fill her in on the fact he was an amputee.

Asuka was angry, and while that in and of itself was not a particularly new turn of events, it was who she was angry with that caused the girl some confusion, she was angry at herself and that was not something she was used to at all.

Her instructors had always commented that she tended to jump first and ask questions never, since whatever she jumped at in the simulator, usually didn't get back up, and so intent on marking her territory early and showing the daddy's boy who was boss, Asuka had jumped and was now wishing she hadn't.

Asuka had simply meant to humiliate the boy and put him in his place on the pecking order, now that she was around to be top pilot, and certainly nobody had informed her of the girl who was sporting a pair of neural clips like hers, albeit they were of a different design, but all that meant was that she was also a pilot as well, "The first I'd guess." She muttered to herself.

"Actually Mari is the fourth child, Shinji's been put into reserve for the time being." Misato's voice startled the red head, as she approached Asuka from behind, moving to the side the older woman leaned on the railing seeming to gather her thoughts, "Care to explain what that was back there?" Misato said a slight edge to her voice.

Asuka sighed kicking the lower half of the railing before answering, "It was a mistake, nobody bothered to tell me he was recovering from whatever it was that happened." The girl said, trying to shift as much blame from herself as she could, Misato wasn't buying it however and told her as much, "Regardless, you can't go round attacking people at random like that, Shinji hasn't got a mean bone in his body, so see to it that doesn't happen again Asuka."

The red head considered this before asking, "So how did he end up a pilot?" it didn't make sense to her, to have someone pacifistic fighting a war for survival, Misato let out a sad sigh and looked at the red head before replying, "He didn't really have much choice, it was him or the end of the world at the time." This caused the girl to stop and think for a while, "Ok, I promise I won't attack anyone unprovoked again." She said solemnly.

Misato smiled for the first time since the two had been reunited and gestured, "Come on I think they're heading to the bridge, apparently the first officer summoned them, I got a text off Mari." This caused Asuka to smirk, "Considering the captain they might not be there for too long."

They made the trip to the bridge, making small talk catching up with each other, Misato commenting on how she had grown since they last saw each other, Asuka pointing out that her figure had also filled out nicely to, as they reached the entrance to the bridge the ships horn sounded loudly, to indicate they were setting off.

* * *

><p>Shinji had arrived on the bridge with Kaji leading the way and Mari bringing up the rear, just as a rumble had passed through the ship indicating the engines were powering up, the obnoxious captain was thankfully nowhere to be seen, his first officer standing at ease staring out the window as they prepared to get under way.<p>

The man turned to regard the boy with a closer inspection, noticing the prosthetic the girl was now carrying around like a lethal cudgel, "Ah so you must be that young man injured in that dreadful attack?" he asked, then motioned for Shinji to step forward.

The boy did so nervously as the first officer pointed to a cord and told him to take hold of it, "Now when I tell you. Give that a good pull." Shinji nodded, wondering what the cord would do, as the ship began to move the man gave the boy his instructions and Shinji dutiful gave the cord a hard tug.

He covered his ear, as the KPH-130C "Triton" Electric Piston Horn blasted out loud and clear, that the ship was underway, despite the noise Shinji couldn't keep the grin off his face and gave the cord another couple of tugs just for good measure.

The first officer chuckled at this, "seems we have a first class sailor in the making here." The man said, and Mari gave the blushing boy a little round of applause, "See puppy? Being famous has its perks!" The girl said, putting a shy smile on his face, a smile which disappeared as a voice chimed in from the doorway behind them.

"Humph they never let me sound the horn!" Asuka grouched as she rejoined them, with Misato bringing up the rear, Shinji watched as a dangerous expression passed over Mari's face before being replaced with a wicked grin, "Well with you on board they probably didn't need to use it!" Mari quipped causing Shinji to have to stifle a snigger, "What the hell was that four eyes?!" came the angry response.

* * *

><p>Finally the tired threesome made their way down to what was to be there quarters for the night, there were six bunk beds, three astride and Mari leapt forwards shouting "Top bunk!" gleefully, she turned and noticed Shinji seemed distracted again, "Ok pupster, what's up?"<p>

The boy shrugged, before pointing out that he would have struggled a bit with clambering into the top bunks one armed anyway, Mari raised and eye brow at this, and with a quick wink at Misato advanced on the boy her hands capturing him before he could flee what was to come.

Gales of hysterical laughter were torn from the boy, as Mari commenced operation "tickle the puppy" and soon had the boy pinned to the bed beneath the one she would be using, Misato strode past yawning tiredly, seemingly deaf to the boys pleas for help, Mari straddled the writhing teen as her fingers danced merrily on his sides the boy panting for breath.

Mari stopped and blushed as she realized the position she was occupying, her hands resting on the boys chest as she sat astraddle him, Shinji seemed to have become aware of this as well his face flushed already from the tickling, seemed to blush an even deeper red as Mari ran her tongue over her lips, the urge to lean down and kiss the boy almost overpowering.

After a short hesitation she dragged herself off Shinji, her heart thundering in her chest as her anxiety threatened her once again, her mind flashing back briefly to that room and that bed where everything had gone wrong, she looked up to see a bemused expression on Misato's face, sticking her tongue out at her she let her gaze slide once more to Shinji before hoisting herself up into the bunk above him, 'whew that was close' she thought to herself, "I'm just above you here, so make sure those nightmares stay away." Mari managed to say as playfully as she could manage, right now she really didn't trust herself.

"Oh don't worry, push comes to shove he can come in with me." Misato said, seemingly picking up on Mari's abrupt change of mood, and knowing where the girl's thoughts had likely gone, Shinji changed into his bed cloths under his covers and lay staring up at the bunk above, trying to work out what had just gone wrong clearly sensing the girls shift as well.

As the lights went out Mari lay trying to get herself to go to sleep, but her heart was still thundering in her chest even as she heard Misato's light snoozing coming from the bunk opposite, she turned one way then the other, and almost shot out of her skin when she came nose to nose with an anxious looking Shinji, peering at her from over the lip of the bunk, "Mari? Did I do something wrong?" the boy whispered his voice sounding small and lost.

At that moment Mari suddenly felt like such a heel, and sliding out of her bed and down onto his she gently drew him close to her savagely shoving the burst of fear she felt away, "No Shinji, you didn't do anything wrong, I'm just scared of myself is all." The girl admitted, and deciding that she would have no secrets with him, she quietly filled the boy in on her past as they sat there, on the terrible mistake she had made and what it had nearly done to her soul.

The boy lay listening intently, never once taking his eye off her even after she finished with, "you must think I'm pretty disgusting huh? I wouldn't blame you for that." To her surprise the boy snuggled in closer and whispered to her, "I don't think you're disgusting, you're the most beautiful thing in the world." The boy's breath tickled her neck as he continued, "You made a mistake, you thought he loved you and he didn't." Mari felt like her heart might just burst at that moment, from his unflinching acceptance of her, "I would never do something like that Mari." The boy added in a soft almost inaudible whisper.

Shinji leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead, so similar to the ones she would give him to let him know everything was ok, and she smiled her hand drawing behind his head and stroking his hair, "Good night puppy." She whispered, drawing the two of them down and pulling the sheets over them both, "Sweet dreams." She whispered to him "G-night." The boy responded with, Before the pair lay simply holding each other, Mari was surprised to feel her heart even out and smiled at what she thought of as the puppy effect, her eyes slowly hooding as Shinji closed his.

Over on the opposite bunk Misato lay awake a small smile on her face at what she had listened to, rolling over she let out a soft sigh as she closed her eyes and made a silent prayer to whatever deity might listen that the two teens would be able to find happiness together.

* * *

><p>The following morning dawned bright and clear much to the relief of all concerned, sitting at breakfast Misato couldn't help notice that the pair sitting next to her, Shinji and Mari were now sitting even closer together than usual, which brought a smile to her lips and a scowl to Asuka's face, the red head still stinging from Mari's little jibe at her last night and the fact Shinji wasn't looking her way at all, robbing her of an apology avenue.<p>

She turned her focus to the man sitting opposite, who was in the process of stroking her left leg with his foot much to her increasing irritation, beside him Asuka was clinging to the man's arm, and he seemed genuinely uncomfortable with the girl's attention, Kaji it seemed had changed a little for the better since they had last seen each other, his helping of Mari in her time of need, had at least made the older woman more tolerant of his presence than she might have otherwise been, Kaji was many things but a pedophile was most certainly not one of them, Asuka was definitely barking up the wrong tree.

She and Kaji had been an item once, back when they had been at college together along with Ritsuko, Misato had been very much in love back then and he with her, until the similarities with her father and Kaji had scared her into ending their relationship, she had deep regrets over that but still felt she had done what was best in the end, 'best for who?' the unwelcome thought entered her mind.

The man turned his attention to Shinji, and Misato felt a lead weight of dread drop into her stomach as his mouth opened, "So I understand you two are staying with Katsuragi?" he enquired, receiving a nod in the affirmative, "Tell me you two, is she still so wild in bed?" the man said with an outrageous wink, Misato turned positively purple reaching over to try to throttle the man.

Mari covered Shinji's ears while mock glaring at Kaji, "Don't listen to him puppy! I'll protect your innocent little ears!" she said in over exaggerated seriousness, this had the side effect of causing Asuka to spit out her coffee laughing at the other girls antics, "puppy? Seriously?" the red head snorted at the pet name for Shinji.

Mari stuck her tongue out at the girl who shook her head in amusement, and Misato suddenly calmed down upon seeing the end result, she stared at Kaji who winked at her as much to say "job done" and Misato couldn't quite keep the small smile off her face, 'clever Kaji, very clever.' She thought, for the two girls had not traded insults on this particular occasion and Asuka even had a small smile on her face chuckling out, "puppy! Heh!"

The remainder of their morning was spent meandering around the ship, or getting a tour of the fleet, Asuka who had chosen to wear a pretty yellow sun dress that morning, had somehow swallowed a portion of her pride and apologized fully to Shinji, much to Misato's relief the boy had accepted said apology, though the occasional barb was fired back and forth between Mari and Asuka the venom was quite a bit less than before.

Finally just after one o'clock the transport helicopter arrived, and while Kaji was off doing who knows what the foursome waited as the large aircraft set down carrying the Evangelion's power cable, which was to be hooked up to the ships twin nuclear reactors, it also disgorged an irritated looking blonde section two agent and double trouble followed out behind her.

Kensuke was in what could really only be described as a complete geek fueled frenzy, as he whirled manically around the deck his camera recording all and sundry, much to the amusement of the ship's deck crew, "Look puppy! Bottled nerd! Shake hard and stand well clear!" Mari joked, causing Shinji to descend into hysterics and even drawing a laugh from Asuka.

Toji stepped out on deck with as much swagger as he could muster, until the wind caught hold of what looked like a brand new white sports cap and whipped it off his head, "hey come back you! Someone stop that hat!" the jock yelled chasing after the escapee hat, said hat decided it would catch at Asuka's feet and the girl grinned as she stepped on the hat, Asuka feigning complete innocence as the boy tried to retrieve it, Mari snickered playfully at the unfortunate boys predicament.

"Who are these bozo's?" the red head demanded, it was at this point that a frightfully strong gust of wind chose the wrong moment, and whipped Asuka's dress into the air exposing her underwear for all to see, Mari covered Shinji's eye as the German girl became incensed at yet more potential embarrassment, and proceeded to slap Toji and Kensuke who had panned his camera round just in time for the show.

"Hey! What the hell was that for for?!" Toji demanded, a large welt on his face, Asuka bounced on her heels grinning in satisfaction at justice having being dispensed, "That was the viewing fee! Quite the bargain nicht?" she informed the irate boy, Toji's eyes narrowed and Misato saw the danger coming before it happened, "The view was ok but a bit over priced! So here's your change!" the boy yelled, dropping his pants and giving all around the full Monty treatment.

Asuka looked aghast and Mari let out a displeased shriek, before both girls slapped Toji one on each side of his face, Shinji for his part was trying to hide his face at what had just happened, "I don't know these people." The boy muttered much to Mari's amusement, Sato let out a long and deep sigh of sufferance as she unloaded Shinji's wheelchair from the helicopter, this caused the boy to scowl, "I swear that wheelchairs stalking me." The teen groused, Toji stood looking despairingly at Mari who flicked her head letting out a humph, "That was gross Toji! No one wanted to see your gun!" the girl said but her eyes were sparkling with mischief.

* * *

><p>Asuka watched the way the fourth child interacted with the third, and was surprised to feel a pang of jealousy, no one had ever been as close to her, as those two clearly were with each other, the boy had settled into the wheelchair after much coaxing from Mari and grumbling on his part, though Asuka herself wondered just how much the boy really needed the chair, he had seemed to deflate when the section two woman had brought it out, and had seemed to Asuka at least to have been managing just fine without it, 'they should really stop babying him.' She thought.<p>

Then there was Mari who was an enigma to the red head, she just couldn't understand how anyone could be so damn cheerful all the time, after their initial head butting session the night before, both she and the brunette were still exchanging a few insults here and there, but the vast majority of the spite had dried up for the time being after their stereo slap of the gorilla, Mari it seemed likely would make quite an interesting rival whereas Shinji would have just let Asuka stomp all over him.

Yes and of course there were the other two boys, or interlopers as Asuka thought of them, clearly not pilots and a pair of idiotic baboons to boot, she had no idea why Misato had brought the pair along, the jock stuck close to Misato, positively drooling over the older woman in a way that was pretty creepy, the nerd was in no less of a camera related frenzy then since he had first arrived.

Asuka followed the little group around at a slight distance, the love of her life Kaji had gone off somewhere citing a job he had to take care of, leaving Asuka trailing the loony brigade as she had dubbed them, and she pondered over how she might continue to make matters more civil between herself and the fourth child.

Returning her gaze to Mari an idea suddenly formed in Asuka's head and she stepped forwards, "well then fourth! How would you like to see a real Evangelion?" the girl turned to eye Asuka warily and Shinji nodded, telling her she should go take a look, the red head had rested her hands on the boys shoulders, rewarding him with a gentle kneading, 'good puppy' Asuka thought with a sarcastic little chuckle, this did however draw a look from Mari that said in no uncertain terms, 'hands off my property!'

Mari relented, and leaving Shinji in Sato's capable hands, turned and followed her erstwhile rival to a ladder that would lead them down to one of the boat launches, as Asuka descended the ladder she glanced up catching site of the other girls rear and blushed, she didn't normally get body envy but Mari made her feel quite inadequate in comparison, dropping into the small dinghy with its outboard motor she waited for the other girl to settle in, before taking them out and over to the Othello where unit two awaited.

* * *

><p>Shinji watched Mari depart with the new girl Asuka and let out a sigh, he hated to see Mari go but loved watching her leave, the boy let out a snort at what he felt was his own delusion, for surely Mari could never see him as more than a really good friend, the girl had proven to be a blessing for the boy but also a source of agony, he desperately wanted to ask Mari out on a date, but just didn't have the courage in case it spoiled things between them.<p>

Feeling Misato's arm rest across his shoulder, the older woman seeming to read his thoughts following his gaze with a knowing grin, "Misa? Do you think a girl like Mari could ever see anything in me?" the boy surprising his guardian with the question, Misato seemed to take her time pondering the query before answering, "Oh I think there might be a pretty good chance." She said smiling at him, he ran his fingers over the pendant at his neck as she spoke.

Shinji felt his heart lurch towards hope at these words, for indeed all the boy had ever truly wanted in his life was to be loved, the one thing that seemed to be denied him as he had grown up at his teachers, and a small smile formed on his face as he considered Misato's words.

The pain that suddenly exploded through his skull, was beyond anything the boy had ever experienced before with the possible exclusion of when his arm had been mulched, he fell forwards out of his chair and vomited up his breakfast on the deck, it felt like something massive was trying to crush his brain to a pulp, and he felt with terrifying certainty what it was, the presence was alien and ancient yet animalistic and simple at the same time, 'all father?! All father?!' he heard the strange voice that was pummeling his mind say.

Misato's worried voice seemed distant to him, as he kneeled there on his knees hands clutching his head, the whole world seeming to blur in and out of focus both visually and audibly, as he tried to get control of his mind as Callie had taught him to, as he forced the pressure back just barely he managed finally to speak though his voice sounded as if he were in a trance, "An Angel. Its here."

He was hauled to his feet as he continued the struggle to push the mental presence away from himself, the world and its sounds seemed to snap back in as if he had water draining from his ears, "Your bleeding man!" came Toji's frightened voice, and reaching up he realized the fluid was real blood seeping from his ears, Shinji looked up at Misato his eye wild as he said in a more focused voice, "I aint got time to bleed! Need to warn the girls!" sounding more like himself.

Misato and Toji helped him back into the wheelchair, and the five of them set off back towards the bridge, halfway there they ran into Kaji who asked what had happened and had paled when they told him of Shinji's seeming premonition, as they made their way onto the bridge carrying Shinji, no one noticed the man slink off below deck again.

* * *

><p>On board the Othello Asuka took the proffered mobile phone from Mari, as the other girl took her back pack off and unloading her plug suit began to strip, the girls demeanor was suddenly all business, the playful kitten had unsheathed her claws it seemed, Asuka listened to Misato's voice even as a massive explosion sounded from outside causing the ship to shudder.<p>

Confirming her understanding of the situation she grabbed one of her own plug suits, and with only a momentary pause followed the other girl's example, there wasn't time it seemed for propriety, and Mari didn't look at Asuka again until the girl had suited up, Mari's change in demeanor seemed to infect the red head as they made their way into the entry plug and she initiated the startup sequence, Asuka choosing to forgo the usual German language setting and starting up in Japanese straight away instead.

As the Eva came to life she was startled at how little back ground mental noise Mari was producing, the girl seemingly synching in tune with Asuka herself, nodding in appreciation of the girl's efforts she drew the Eva upright having been on its belly and into a standing position, the tarpaulin gathering around the giant red armored cyborg like a cloak, "Alright lets go!" she yelled, launching the Eva into a game of hopscotch across the fleet, casting off the cloak as she did so leaping effortlessly towards the carrier using the destroyers as stepping stones.

Reaching the Over the rainbow Asuka landed a little harder than she had intended, and the ship lurched to one side from the impact of having an 80 meter tall robot land on its flight deck, Asuka shifted the Eva's position over like riding a surfboard, in the process steadying the ship even as the ship's captain continued to demand she power down the Eva.

Around them the sounds of cannon fire filled the air, as the fleet vainly attempted to bring the Angel down, the shells bouncing harmlessly off the AT field and causing Asuka to shake her head in disgust, "What are you guys stupid!? You can't beat an Angel without an Eva Idiots!"

Grabbing the power cable and slotting the connector into place, she returned her attention to the the sea just as the Othello went up, a massive explosion tearing its hull in two, with no access to ranged weapons, Asuka drew her progressive Knife from the shoulder pylon and yelled out a challenge, "Hey Shamu! En guard!"

The creature in question rose up out of the water, its vast and mostly bone white form looking like an seriously over grown manta ray had mated with a crocodile, on its back was what looked like a beaked skull mask, it lunged up out of the water towards the deck of the carrier, seemingly looking to beach itself but instead crashed into unit two, knocking the knife from Asuka's grip which promptly sheared a f-15 jet in half and sticking into the deck.

Bringing both hands up to wrestle with the over grown monstrosity, she heard Mari ponder as to the core's location as there was no sign of it on the creature, the beast continued shoving with all its considerable weight until the inevitable happened, unit two reached the edge of the carrier and Asuka felt the deck fall out from under her as she slipped into the water, "we're boned." Was Mari's only comment as they sank beneath the waves.

Asuka stared in disbelief at the situation and heard Mari let out an annoyed sigh, "Unit two only has the B-type equipment doesn't it?" she asked, Asuka nodded sheepishly, without the proper underwater equipment to allow it to function, the unit continued to sink unable to move, "well what now?!" the red head asked exasperated.

Mari pointed forwards, and Asuka could only make a little "oh" sound as the Angel was now making a bee line straight towards them, its mouth snapped open revealing rows of sharp teeth and inside the beasts throat its core, "Crikey look at the size of the teeth on this bugger!" Mari exclaimed, doing a bad Australian accent before the creature collided with them once again, its teeth sinking into the Eva's armor, "Will you shut up four eyes!?" Asuka bellowed, as she felt her Eva's sympathetic pain.

* * *

><p>On the bridge of the carrier, all hell had broken loose after unit two had slid beneath the waves, Kaji had made his escape in a small jet telling Misato over the intercom that he had a delivery to make, and he was leaving the Angel in her more than capable hands, Misato had not been able to believe what she had witnessed, but returned her focus to the situation in hand, "Delivery my ass!" Misato grumbled.<p>

The Angel had apparently grabbed hold of the Eva in its mouth, and was now darting about under the water like a massive fish with a particularly juicy worm in its mouth, as she pondered the situation the words fish and worm kept coming back to her, and she snapped her fingers as the light bulb upstairs came on, turning she marched over to the captain who seemed despondent at the loss of life among his personnel, and the fleets failure to even put so much as a dent in the monstrous creature, "Captain I need your cooperation on this, I have a plan to defeat the Angel." Misato said, causing the man to look up, "Very well Captain Katsuragi. What do you have in mind?" the man said with a sigh.

Pulling up a schematic of the fleet Misato quickly outlined her plan, they would begin reeling in the Eva's power cable and with it the Angel itself, unit two would force open the things mouth, while two scuttled battleships were sunk directly in its path, set to remote operations the ships would fire their cannons point blank into the Angels maw then self-destruct.

The old man stood hunched over the plan nodding his head, and then without further ado or argument had begun giving the orders to evacuate the two chosen ships, the Iowa-class battleships Illinois and Kentucky, "This had better work, for all our sakes." Misato simply nodded before informing Asuka and Mari of the plan, the girls had given the affirmative that they understood, and Misato had felt glad that the two were taking the situation seriously enough not to fight or argue any more.

She turned to focus on Shinji the boy still seemed out of it, as if something were pulling his focus away and she felt real concern something mirrored by his two friends crouched next to him, 'how did he know about the Angel?' she found herself wondering, his normally midnight blue eye, had turned a very pale ice blue compared to its normal pigmentation and his skin as well had turned almost bloodless, they had patched the boy up best as they could, but Misato had already called for an emergency medical evacuation chopper to pick him up as soon as the Angel was dead.

Once the two battleships had been evacuated, their crews moved to Over the rainbow the order was given to scuttle them and the power cable began to reel the Angel in like a giant fish, now it was all down to two young girls to force the things mouth open in time, Misato crossed her fingers and hoped for the best.

* * *

><p>Shinji had distantly heard the plan Misato had come up with, and as usual found himself wondering at the woman's sanity, he on the other hand had his own fish to fry so to speak, the Angels mind was no longer quite as dominant as it had been when he had first ran into it, the things mind on his had been like a sledgehammer to the skull, however now he could also sense the Eva again, as he had when he had first come onboard like a strange tugging on his thoughts.<p>

He allowed himself to submit to that tugging and ran his mind over the cyborgs surface thoughts, sensing both Mari and Asuka within the Eva, though not being able to read their deepest thoughts for which he was glad, that to him would have been a huge invasion of privacy.

It was the presence of the Eva and his proximity to it that seemed related to his ability to tap into the nexus if Callie had explained things correctly, but why had he picked up the Angel? Could it be the Angels were somehow on the same wavelength as the Eva's? As he pondered this he turned his head towards the distant seeming bridge as he heard an alarmed voice cry out, "They can't get the Eva to move! The plan isn't going to work!"

Shinji focused on the Eva, pushing his mind to it even though it was a strain with the Angel sitting in his head as well, odd that the being didn't seem to notice him at all, he ghosted over Mari and Asuka's surface thoughts as they tried valiantly to get the Eva to open the creatures mouth, and delving in added his own thoughts to the mix, 'open!' he cried out mentally, and it was only now that the Angel seemed to become aware of this external threat.

All too late however as the Evangelion finally moved, drawing up to its knees and forcing the creatures mouth wide open, Shinji allowed himself to flick briefly back to the Angel's mind and triumphantly thrust a thought its way, 'Got you!' the creatures eyes widened as the battleships collided with its maw, and moments later a vast explosion tore the monster apart.

The creature's death shriek echoed in his head like a thousand knives being dropped and rattling together all at once, Shinji slumped forwards with a whimpering moan, clutching at his head before finally darkness rushed up like an old friend to claim him.


	5. Nature of the beast

**Fate**

Nature of the beast

Asuka stood outside the door to her new apartment in Tokyo three and turned to glare at her new roommate Rei Ayanami. Modifications had been made to the apartment directly next door to Misato's, connecting the two apartments into one. Nerv had simply bought the building outright from the owner, who had been more than happy to sell up due to lack of custom.

Rei Ayanami stood slightly behind the red head, seemingly oblivious to the ire of the other girl, waiting for her new roommate to slide her card through the lock. Asuka had taken an almost immediate disliking to the strange pale girl who behaved so much like a doll, if there was one thing Asuka couldn't stand it was dolls, so of course she had been made to room with the freakazoid.

It had been Misato's suggestion to the commander that the apartments be merged, and much to the surprise of all-around he had agreed. An even bigger surprise had been Gendo's suggestion that Rei occupy one of the additional rooms, moving out of the dilapidated apartment she had been existing in, and into something that more resembled a place to live.

Sliding her key card through the lock, Asuka made damn sure she was the first through the door, and headed straight to check the available bedrooms, "I of course, shall be having the biggest room!" she told the albino, in a tone that brooked absolutely no argument. Rei shrugged her shoulders seemingly completely indifferent to the whole affair, which served to simply irritate Asuka even further.

Asuka's mind drifted back to the incident with the pacific fleet, and more specifically the third child who was even now still lying unconscious in Nerv medical. Makinami had been beside herself when she had left the Eva's entry plug, just in time to see the boy being carried on a stretcher towards a waiting emergency helicopter. She had demanded to be allowed to accompany him, all the while asking what the hell had happened to him.

Asuka herself had been startled by the boy's appearance, his skin pale, his face drawn, he had looked for all the world like he was dead. The red head may not have seen the boy as any sort of threat, at least not to her position as top pilot, and therefore really had little interest in him. However she hoped at least for Makinami's sake, and the sake of having competition that the boy pulled through.

The fact that Misato had been steaming mad about Kaji leaving the fleet during the battle, didn't really surprise the red head, as she herself had been more than a little put out by his actions. However the suave man had assured her that he had not had a choice, that what he was carrying had been too important to risk losing.

Kaji had not elaborated further on what had been so important, and Asuka hadn't pushed the issue, especially when he had promised to take her out for a meal just as soon as he was free. This of course had assuaged her curiosity, and had gotten her stoked up to make sure she wore her best dress, and perfume for the occasion, she would make Kaji see her as an adult, and worthy of his attention even if it killed him.

Setting down her bags on the single bed having secured her room, she headed back outside to guide the deliverymen in with the rest of her gear. The look on Rei's face, as box after box filed into the apartment actually changed for the first time, to something akin to wonder, at least Asuka thought it might be wonder, "You appear to have a lot of possessions." The girl said pointing out the obvious.

"Well of course I do! Can't live too comfortably, I always say." The red head preened, and stepping into the other girl's room, her jaw almost ploughed a furrow as she realised everything that Rei owned had gone into one suitcase. She looked around shaking her head in wonderment of her own, "You do realise, we get paid wonder girl, don't you?!" she demanded, the girl looked at her an expression of momentary surprise crossing her features, "I was not aware of this. However, I have no need of payment." She said softly, Asuka face palmed at this wondering why on earth she was surprised at this response.

The joining door between their apartments opened up, and Misato entered along with a much more subdued looking Makinami, Asuka was surprised at herself when she felt a momentary pang of sympathy for the girl, who along with Misato had a concerned manner about her. "Hey girls! We got take out ordered, if you want to come on through?!" Misato said, and it was at this point that Asuka's stomach chose to announce itself with a hungry growl.

Stepping through the door into the other apartment, Asuka was positively salivating at the thought of food, when she ran into the most bizarre sight she had ever seen. Waddling around the living room was a bird of some manner, wearing a metal backpack of some sorts on its predominantly black body, "What's with the bird?" she asked somewhat curious, the creatures red frill flicked up as if recognising it was being talked about.

Misato picked the animal up, cuddling him like a toy which in turn earned her an indignant squawk, "This is Pen-Pen, he's a warm spring's penguin, he's very intelligent, so be careful what you say to him." The woman added as a warning. Asuka shrugged entering the kitchen of Misato's apartment, and laid her eyes on the food a grin breaking out on her face, as her mouth started to water.

As they sat eating their food it was Rei who asked the question that Asuka wanted to, but her pride refused to allow her, "What word on pilot Ikari's condition?" the pale girl enquired, Asuka watched as the brunette took a moment before answering. "Well, he's not as deathly pale as he was, but he still isn't waking up." She finished, the last part barely a whisper.

Asuka sat back, and not feeling happy with the prospect of a moping Makinami decided to intervene, "He'll be fine! He survived a loony in a car, he'll pull through this." Whatever "this" of course was. The doctors were at a loss to explain the boy's condition, and Misato had made Kensuke and Toji swear an oath of secrecy on the matter of what had occurred on the ship, not even threats of violent torture, and death by slapping was enough to get the two boys to talk.

There was something that Misato clearly didn't want getting around, and this of course had Asuka's curiosity burning. What had occurred while she and Makinami had been under the water? What would cause Misato to become so protective of the boy? Asuka had heard the older woman telling doctor Akagi, that she had no clue what had befallen the boy, Ritsuko had looked unconvinced to say the least, and for that matter Asuka was not either.

Still she would extract an answer from somewhere, but in the meantime she had her worldly possessions to unload. Glancing between Ayanami and Makinami, not for the first time today she found herself sorely wishing she'd been allowed to room with the other girl, sure Makinami could be annoying in her own way when she wasn't pining for her puppy, but at least she wasn't an emotionless doll like Rei.

"Need a hand unpacking? I have a bit too much time on my hands here." The brunette offered, and after a brief hesitation Asuka accepted with a nod. Making their way through to the other apartment, Asuka found herself wondering how much longer it was going to take the third and fourth children, to figure out just how bad they had it for each other, and with that came another pang of jealousy which she ruthlessly forced down, after all she was going to get Kaji, so what did she have to be jealous of?

* * *

><p>As was his want the supreme commander of Nerv sat in his office looming like a dark force, hands folded carefully in front of him as he slowly digested the bomb shell that doctor Akagi had just dropped on him. By all rights it should have been completely and utterly impossible for his son to have achieved such a thing, and indeed the boy appeared to have paid a price for doing the impossible. The third child had somehow unbelievably, remotely synchronised with Eva unit two, and Gendo found much to his surprise, his measure of the boy inching up a notch.<p>

The fact that captain Katsuragi had attempted to hide the information was not all that unexpected, she was after all very close to her wards, and very protective of them. The woman however had failed to account for unit two's internal data recorder, which had logged the incident in question. Akagi had run test after test on the red Evangelion, in order to confirm that it wasn't simply some kind of system glitch, before reporting her findings directly to Gendo.

Now more than ever, Gendo felt he had made the right call in putting the pilots together in one modified communal living space. He could use Rei to keep an eye on his son, and at the same time keep tabs on Katsuragi to ensure her loyalty to him and Nerv was not waning under sentimentality. It would not do if something were to affect the scenario, and at the moment his son, might just be one such potential thorn in the side of his plans.

"I want to be notified as soon as he wakes up, endeavour to find the cause of this anomaly." The man had stated, giving Ritsuko her marching orders. The bottle blonde scientists own curiosity would prove useful in driving her to uncover what exactly was going on with the boy, Ritsuko hated puzzle pieces that did not fit, and Gendo knew this. He then turned his attention to the two men stood in his office, as Nerv's resident mad scientist left the room.

Ryoji Kaji stood in front of the desk, his uniform done up tightly although the man, Gendo thought with a tinge of dark amusement looked uncomfortable with it on, as he fidgeted with his collar from time to time. Kozo Fuyutsuki was as ever at Gendo's left, a puzzled frown on the elder man's normally serene face, "thoughts professor?" Gendo enquired of his former teacher, Kozo took a moment before he spoke gathering his thoughts.

It was something Gendo had come to admire in the only person he could consider a true confidant, if not a friend. The man may have had no love for Gendo himself, but he was loyal to the goal that the supreme commander sought, and he always carefully considered matters before adding anything to an on going discussion, "This has the potential to be a very useful development." The vice commander said carefully.

"Assuming of course, that pilot Ikari does not abuse, whatever this power is of course." Fuyutsuki added, painfully aware of how little Kaji knew of their plans. Gendo nodded an idea forming in his mind even as he mused over the problems associating with the young spy might cause, of course ultimately it was a small matter to eliminate someone if they became a threat, indeed he had done so on more than one occasion. "Yes the boy will need taking in hand." Gendo stated, all three men were of course aware of the careful game of charades currently being played, and Kaji being no fool picked up that nothing major would be said in his presence and excused himself from the room.

Once the spy had left Gendo removed his glasses and let out an uncharacteristic sigh of irritation, "things could become problematic, if Shinji should somehow discern the true nature of the Eva's. Or for that matter, discover the scenario." he intoned, rubbing his eyes. Kozo seemed to stiffen next to him as if reading his meaning, "You don't intend to terminate your own son surely?!" the man seemed aghast at the prospect, truth be told despite years of isolating himself from his son he found the idea of ordering the boy's death as unpalatable as Kozo, "What else would you have me do?" he asked genuinely curious.

Fuyutsuki took a moment to run the possible scenarios over, which did not involve the boy's tragic death before speaking again. "We could try bringing him into the fold? Failing that, brainwashing is always an option." Kozo finally said, Gendo mused over the possible fallout of bringing his son in on the plans. He had spent years distancing himself from the boy, and brainwashing had its own problems, such as Katsuragi noticing a change in his behaviour.

Nobody knew that deep down Gendo had primarily abandoned his son in order to spare Shinji pain, and indeed it had never really been his intent for the boy to be anywhere near Nerv and its Eva's. Gendo had long believed that all he could ever do was bring his son pain, but now with the attempt on the boy's life, and now this latest development, it seemed his hand might well be forced. "We'll wait and see, I'll have Rei keep tabs on him." He said, the thought of somehow breaking down the barriers between Shinji and himself, was a terrifying prospect for the normally in control commander.

Turning his focus to other matters, Gendo perused the paperwork related to the nursing staffs request for additional help dealing with the third child. Once Shinji awoke he would need carefully maintained swimming exercise to regain his full strength, problematic in that he couldn't actually swim. The other problem being his aversion to letting strangers be in physical contact with him, given his closeness to pilot Makinami, the request was that she handle the boy's sessions.

Gendo snorted in a brief surge of amusement, as he recalled Sato's assessment of the two's burgeoning relationship, the agent had used words to the effect "that wild and rampaging Angels, could not keep the two apart" his mind flicked back to when he and Yui had first been courting, and a small smile graced his lips as he recalled what they had been like back then. He had been so smitten with his future bride that he had gotten into a fight at a bar on her behalf, when a man had touched the woman's backside uninvited.

Those had been more carefree days, before second impact had ruined the world so thoroughly and claimed so many lives. Back then there had still been seasons, and Gendo had never imagined he would miss the sight of autumn, something the second impact generation would never know anything of.

Yui had completed Gendo in a way no one else could have done, she had looked beneath his trouble maker exterior, and had seen the real him, when no one else could be bothered to do so, not even one professor Fuyutsuki. Yui had been his heart and soul, and her loss during the initial contact experiment with unit one, had left him devastated and led however unintentionally, to his estrangement from his son.

He would move heaven and earth to be reunited with his love, and indeed was going to pretty much do just that. More and more though, Gendo found himself wondering just what Yui had known that had driven her decision to bring forward the date of her ill-fated activation. It was no secret to him that Yui's father had a seat on SEELE's secretive council, could it be there was something he had missed over the years? Had Yui had her own plan in relation to the Eva?

He supposed he would have his answers soon enough, but for the time being it appeared he might well have to look into thawing relations between himself and his son. Such a thing would be fraught with pitfalls for both father and son, but if it meant keeping the scenario on track then so be it.

So without much further fuss he signed off on the request, and instated Mari as Shinji's physiotherapist in a more official capacity. The girl would be provided with supervision and training of course, so she knew just what she was expected to do, and it would in the long run cut costs down, and just maybe also open up an avenue for Gendo to use.

* * *

><p>Shinji found himself currently standing in a field, everywhere the boy looked there was a strange white compact powdery substance, and said substance was also very cold to the touch and blanketed the area as far as his eyes could see, the effect the boy had to admit was beautiful.<p>

The area was not seemingly of Japanese origin, a small forest was around one hundred metres to his left, and fences seemed to border off sections of the different fields. The wind whistled ever so softly but it had a bite to it, the boy could feel his cheeks growing cold at its touch.

It was night time and there were so many stars up in the sky, each one as clear to see as could possibly be, the moon was full beaming down its light. His gaze was drawn to the only domicile within view, a small cottage a ways down the hill he presently stood on, it was a thatch roofed cottage and there was a dim light on upstairs.

Shinji examined the clothing he found himself wearing, thick garments that provided warmth and protection from the elements. On his hands were what appeared to be a type of woollen glove with no fingers, he found himself somewhat amused by the design. The hood of the thick coat he wore had a fur lining round it, on his feet were a pair of odd boots dark green in colour, and round his neck he could feel what he was sure was a woollen scarf.

Shrugging he set off towards the cottage the white stuff crunching beneath his boots, his breath misting in front of his mouth as he walked. The boy wondered why the Nexus had chosen this strange unfamiliar and cold venue. After a short trip he reached the thatch roofed cottage and approached the entrance, stopping only when his mind finally realised that the white stuff was snow.

He had read about it and seen pictures, but to experience it first-hand so to speak, it was quite interesting although his feet were now getting quite cold. Reaching out the boy hesitated before he knocked on the door and waited, after a short time he heard the sound of a latch being undone.

The woman who opened the door made him do a double take, with red hair and blue eyes she looked like an older version of Asuka, except she was wearing glasses. "Ja, was willst du?" the woman asked, Shinji blinked stupidly, and the woman's head finally tilted down, he swore she had a shocked look on her face.

Then some sort of realisation seemed to slam into her like a bullet, she lurched forward grabbing the boy and hauling him inside. Shinji felt a frill of fear surge through him as the woman began prodding at him, her hands roaming over him as if trying to verify he was indeed solid, "Ihre echt?" the woman asked, desperation in her voice.

Tilting his head, Shinji had to take a pot guess at what she was saying, "I- Yeah I'm real." The boy stammered. The woman took a moment to calm herself, "Forgive me. I'm just a little confused right now." She said, voice shaking as she switched to Japanese.

She turned and led the boy into what he thought was the sitting room, a large open fire dominated one wall logs burning within, all around were pictures on the walls, featuring people Shinji didn't know, on the mantle of the fire were ornaments and more pictures, the place had a very cosy feel to it.

"I recall this place from my childhood." The woman continued, "I don't know how I came to be here though." ditching his heavy coat, the boy sat on the couch, "What's your name?" he asked, finally finding his voice again.

"Kyoko Soryu." The woman answered, Shinji nodded his suspicions confirmed on that front, she sat next to him seemingly needing his proximity for some reason, "I'm Shinji-Shinji Ikari." The boy introduced himself, the woman smiled as she clearly recognised the family name, "You must be Yui's boy." She said fondly, Shinji smiled nodding his confirmation that he was.

Shinji removed the green boots and concentrating conjured a pair of fluffy white slippers, he noticed Kyoko stare startled at this, "The Nexus can provide whatever you want, don't ask me how it works, it just does." The boy explained, the woman opened her mouth to speak.

Suddenly there was a creaking from the floorboards upstairs, and Kyoko tensed up her hand straying to his. Shinji looked at Kyoko and noticed the fear in her eyes, "Whose upstairs?" the boy asked, he felt a nervous thrill as the woman flinched, something clearly had her frightened.

He didn't know why, but the idea of someone, or something scaring this kind seeming woman made him quite angry. Standing up he made his way out of the sitting room, coming to a stop at the foot of the stairs, "please! Don't go up there!" Kyoko whimpered.

The boy looked up the stairs and noted it was in darkness, only a small amount of light could be made out, though where it was coming from the boy could not see. "I mustn't run away." He said, the mantra somewhat cold comfort considering what he was about to attempt.

Shinji took a breath, his every instinct screaming at him to run away, as he set his foot on the stairs and began his ascent. He could hear the sound of the floorboards again, stopping the boy found himself wondering where the hell Callie was when he needed her.

He neared the top and looked back, at the bottom of the stairs Kyoko stood chewing her lip fearfully, Shinji turned starting to feel real fear gnawing at him. "You are my lucky-lucky star." The boy sang in a whisper, he supposed it was a sign of how scary he found the situation that he was in fact singing, something he never normally did.

Reaching the top of the stairs he looked around hand resting on the banister, he could make out four doors but only one was closed, a light shone from underneath it, the occasional shadow moving back and forth along with the creaks, "Lucky-lucky-lucky." The boy continued his nervous song.

Stepping up to the door a sudden realisation hit him, this was just like that horror movie Mari had made him watch, the one with the masked killer in the attic, the one that had scared them both senseless. However of course he had nothing to defend himself with, "This is stupid." The boy whispered swallowing.

Once more focusing he felt a weight settle in his hands, looking down he nodded at the crowbar that had appeared. The boy gently grasped the handle and eased the door open as quietly as he could, "you are…" he didn't get to finish.

A figure flew out of the room at him with a blood curdling shriek, as it crashed into him he screamed at the top of his lungs as he was bowled over, the crowbar flung from his grasp. "Come die with me!" The figure said, had Shinji not been terrified out of his wits at that point, he would have recognised the voice, as the things fingers closed round his throat.

Thrashing and kicking desperately, the boy's vision began to swim, 'what happens if I die here?' he suddenly thought, he found himself wishing he had listened to Kyoko. Shinji looked at his attacker and froze momentarily, it looked like Kyoko but in a hospital gown. She looked gaunt and haggard, a noose hung round her neck, "Come die with me!" she called, her voice like nails on a chalk board.

Footsteps sounded from the stairway and a voice yelled shrilly, "Leave him alone!" Shinji heard a dull thud, the pressure round his neck ceased, he felt himself being dragged backwards as he coughed, his breath coming in ragged gasps. Lying on the floor before him, seemingly unconscious was the ghoul Kyoko as he thought of it, the other version of the woman had come upstairs and saved him, having hit the thing with his lost crowbar.

He looked from first one to the other, now Shinji was not normally given to profanity, however on this occasion he felt it perhaps deserved. "Ok! Just what the fuck!" he spat out, Shinji found himself rather angry, perhaps because of the scare, or nearly dying or whatever, "Who is she? Your evil twin?" the boy demanded.

"I think she's me." Kyoko said, her voice indicating both sadness and fear, Shinji stood back up confusion etched on his face. "How can she be you?!" he asked, the boy felt like what little reality was left, had decided to take a running jump, "It's like being in a badly written story!" He mused, a hint of hysteria creeping into his voice.

"I think I might have an explanation." Came a familiar voice, Callie had materialised at the top of the stairs, the wolf tilted its head as she dropped the length of rope she held in her mouth. "No talking with your mouth full!" Shinji admonished, still shaken by his experience. Picking up the rope he helped tie up the ghoulish Kyoko, "Where the hell were you?!" the boy demanded, Callie had the good graces to look ashamed.

* * *

><p>Trussed up like a prize turkey at Christmas, the ghoulish Kyoko sat on one of the chairs looking rather put out, Callie had just finished explaining the whole split soul concept to Shinji, the boy nodded dimly, "So how does me knowing all that technobabble, help Mrs Soryu out?" he asked.<p>

Callie sighed a tinge of annoyance entering her voice, "Mind over matter remember?" the wolf growled, "By yourself, I wouldn't expect you to be able to accomplish this." She continued, the boy perked up, as he realised he wouldn't be carrying the weight alone it seemed.

"Ok. So we merge the two back together. What then?" Shinji asked, he really didn't fancy his chances if Kyoko went all axe murderer on him again, "Then you wake up, and a certain young red head, will have an easier time with her Eva." Callie finished.

Callie had theorised that Kyoko had attempted to outwit the first contact experiment of unit two, it had back fired however separating her soul from her body, and had left behind an insane body. When the body had committed suicide, theorised by the rope, the Eva specialists had bunged it into the cyborg and finished the job.

The problem that had arisen was that the soul and the mind had not reintegrated, two separate entities existing within the Eva, in essence unit two was suffering from split personality disorder. Which was were Shinji and Callie came in, the plan was to merge the two separated parts, "are you ready?" Callie asked.

Shinji nodded and closed his eyes, as he reached into the Nexus proper, he could sense now the two disparate entities that comprised the whole, he felt Callie's mind join his and with a surge the two began.

It felt an awful lot like dragging two heavy things together, as the ghoul seemed not to want to go, it shrieked and howled but the two held firm. By the time they had finished the merge was completed, Shinji opened his eyes to see the finished result.

Kyoko stood before them completed, "Ein herzliches Dankeschön." The woman said, Shinji marvelled at her, she was vibrant now in a way she hadn't been before, her red hair seeming to shine in the light of the fire.

"You're welcome." Said Callie, the wolf sounding very pleased with herself, Shinji snorted in amusement. It was then he recalled the pacific fleet, and decided to ask the wolfs opinion, sitting down he began explaining what had happened, he watched as an expression of alarm spread on Callie's lupine features.

"The only thing I can think of is unit two." She said, padding back and forth on the rug, she turned to regard Kyoko, "How long have you been here?" Callie asked. The red head paused to think back, "I think we've been here since the first contact experiment." The woman mused.

"However I recall only waking up recently, like I'd been in a deep slumber." She finished, Callie stopped her pacing and looked at Shinji, "when you first touched unit two's mind, you woke up the two Kyoko's, and because unit two is a vessel of Adam, it opened you to the Angel!" she said, sounding for all the world like she'd had a eureka moment.

"Wait vessel of Adam?!" the boy enquired, Callie froze her body language was one of having been caught in the dog biscuit jar, "Yeah… the Eva's are sort of, grown from Adam." She said sheepishly, Shinji blinked then leaned back in his seat, "Do tell me more." He said, sounding remarkably irritated.

Kyoko burst out laughing at this, "Oh I like this young man! He has spunk!" She said gleefully, Callie sighed looking at Shinji, "Where else were we supposed to get the Eva's from?" she asked, Shinji shrugged realizing he had never given it any thought.

"I thought Adam was vaporised?" he said confused, Kyoko nodded interjecting into the tale, "He was but we had DNA samples to work with, pretty potent stuff really." She finished.

The boy sat considering the implications, "So we're fighting angels, with angels essentially?" he received a nod from both woman and wolf, sitting head in his hands the boy felt lost. Kyoko disappeared for a moment returning with a drink, "Here try some mulled wine." She said, Shinji sat nursing the drink as his brain tried to process what he had just learned.

* * *

><p>Standing outside the cottage in winter clothing, Kyoko stood with a cigarette in hand, she was slowly assimilating the memories of her body. Asuka had suffered more in the end because of Kyoko's arrogance, not less as had been her intent.<p>

She had been terrified when news had reached her of the contact experiment with unit one, how it had seemingly gone wrong, absorbing Yui Ikari into it with no hope of recovery. Kyoko had been determined to avoid that fate, to have her cake and eat it so to say.

However her attempt to escape her fate had been worse than being simply absorbed, she had lost her soul and left behind an insane body, the damage to her daughter must have been immeasurable. The boy had woken her up when his mind had brushed hers, and now she found herself in this strange world of thought made manifest.

The boy was still inside, having fallen asleep on the couch, evidently worn out by his little adventure not that she could blame him. Shinji had not in fact returned to the waking world, Callie theorising the boys mind was still repairing itself, not that Kyoko was complaining.

He had stood up for her, when she herself had been too afraid to initially act, this shy timid little boy had stepped up. When he had been threatened on the stair, it had been more then she could take, her maternal instincts had driven her to confront her other aspect.

She was most assuredly glad of the boys presence, try as she might she had not been able to conjure an avatar of her daughter. This meant there were clear restrictions on what could, and could not be brought into being.

Kyoko turned to her canine companion, the wolf was sat watching her intently and the woman decided enough was enough. "Just how long, do you plan on keeping this charade going?" she asked, the animals head tilted and then seemed to take on a resigned air.

Its body shimmered stretching as it changed, where once a wolf had sat on its haunches now stood a woman. Her hair was shoulder length and brown in colour, her eyes a piercing green, Kyoko knew her well, "Hello Yui." She greeted.

Yui glanced nervously at the door to the cottage, "You can't tell him, not yet anyway." Yui implored, and Kyoko felt herself grow angry. "You can have something I can't! Yet you waste time with these games!" she said in a harsh whisper, Yui had the good graces to look slightly ashamed.

"If I were to reveal myself to him, he'd become obsessed with trying to bring me out." Yui said defensively, Kyoko rolled her eyes at this her irritation growing, "You can leave this place Yui! I doubt very much if I ever can! I'll never see my daughter again!"

Yui held her hands up in a placating gesture, "We don't know that Kyoko!" she said, the red head huffed taking a draw on her cigarette. The two stood in silence for a time, staring at the night sky so brilliant in its luminosity, "What about this place? What is it?" Kyoko finally asked, breaking the silence that had fallen.

"I'm not sure, it was here when I arrived." Came the reply, Kyoko mused over this piece of the puzzle, if this Nexus had been here even before the Eva's, "In that case, who or what built it?" she asked, Yui turned to look at her again, "That's the big question." Was her response.

* * *

><p>Shinji awoke slowly to several sensations, first was the weight over his legs caused by a sleeping Callie, and second was the smell of bacon being prepared, which caused his mouth to water. Deftly sliding his legs out from under the wolf, who growled in complaint he stood up, slid his slippers on and made his way to the kitchen following his nose.<p>

Kyoko stood at an old fashioned stove cooking breakfast, the light from outside streaming into the kitchen, the woman was humming a jaunty little tune which made the teen smile. "Need a hand?" the boy asked, Kyoko turned to greet him startling Shinji with a hug, "I have it covered, but thanks for offering." She replied smiling.

Shrugging the boy set about making the table up for three, as he looked around the place at the old fashioned timbers and the stone floor, Shinji felt a strange sense of absolute peace. He turned to regard the red headed woman and it all fell into place, Kyoko likely would never see her daughter again, so he had in a way become a surrogate for Kyoko's maternal side.

Not that he was complaining of course, but he made a silent vow that if a way could be found, he would bring Asuka here to Kyoko. It was at this point that Callie deigned to grace them with her presence, jumping up onto a seat that Shinji had innocently left out, she sat at the table salivating at the smell of bacon.

Kyoko turned from the stove and stared at the wolf, a battle of wills seemed in the offing as woman and wolf glared at each other. "I'd tell you to get off the chair, but you would just ignore me." Kyoko finally said, she doled out the bacon and then the eggs and sausage.

Shinji eyed the food, wondering if it would have any taste or texture, sitting down he sliced off a piece of sausage and popped it in his mouth. To his immense surprise it did indeed taste like the real thing, and all three greedily dug in to their cooked breakfast.

Once finished Shinji helped with the dishes, both he and Kyoko ending up covered in soap studs, they both missed the wistful look that stole over Callie's lupine features. They finished up and a change of clothing later were outside, Kyoko insisting on building something called a snowman.

Shinji watched in amusement and then helped the woman gather the snow up, with a big pile they rolled it up into a ball and then started the process over. Two more round objects later, each slightly smaller than the other, they lifted them up and positioned them on the body.

Coal for eyes, mouth and buttons, a carrot for a nose and a pipe that Shinji conjured. Their snowman stood there completed, Shinji grinned feeling a sense of having accomplished something. It was at this point, that something cold and wet smacked into the back of his head.

Spinning on the spot to try and find the culprit, he found himself looking back towards the cottage, around the corner of which lupine footprints had disappeared. Callie came bounding round the corner tongue hanging out in a sloppy grin, Shinji glared at the wolf trying to work out how she had pelted him with snow, given she had no hands.

Kyoko giggled and picking up a handful of snow hurled it at the boy, turning to glare at the woman he leaned down and scooped up an handful of snow, "Oh it's on!" the boy said gamely. Kyoko shrieked with laughter as a three way snowball fight erupted, Callie seeming to cheat somehow.

The wolf danced on its back legs back and forth, clearly feeling very pleased with herself, which is until she received two muzzle's worth of snowballs. Both boy and woman had turned and launched their attacks, Shinji's accuracy improving in leaps and bounds.

All three stopped however as a somewhat mournful voice filled the air, it was singing a sad sounding song and Shinji recognised the voice. "Mari." He breathed, turning to Kyoko he walked up to her, the woman pulled him into a hug.

"I'll come back I promise." The teen said, Kyoko nodded sadly ruffling his hair, "Go, go put a smile on that girl of yours face." She sighed. Nodding the boy stepped back and reached out for the song, grasping the words that seemed to hang in the air he hauled himself up.

* * *

><p>Mari was sat on a chair pulled right up to Shinji's bedside, the girls head was resting on his chest listening to his heartbeat, his chest rising and falling rhythmically. The boy had a saline drip in the crook of his arm, much like when she had first met him, his prosthetic was detached and was being kept in the nurse's office.<p>

She let out a sigh, the boy still had shown no sign of waking up, and Mari was beginning to truly worry now. What if he didn't ever wake up? She didn't know what was going on, and Misato was not telling anyone, the woman seeming afraid of something.

"When your feet, are made of stone." She started to sing softly, her voice trembling ever so slightly "and you're convinced, that you're all alone." She continued, "Look at the stars, instead of the dark, you'll find your heart shines like the sun."

The boys breathing, which had been the same since he had been brought in changed, "That was beautiful." Came a voice that made her sit up. Shinji lay looking at her a soft smile on his face, Mari let out a squeal of delight and helped the boy sit up, "Thank god your awake!" the girl exclaimed.

The boy sat for a moment seeming to soak in his environment, "I'm really starting to hate this ceiling." He groused, Mari smiled at this, glad her puppy was seeming normal enough.

For a few moment she just stood there holding him, "You scared the hell out of me." She whispered, the boy looked into her eyes and reached up stroking her face. "Sorry, hopefully it won't happen again." Shinji said, a small sad smile on his face.

Mari removed the drip from his arm, carefully applying a plaster, it was then the boy finally seemed to register what she was wearing. From head to toe she was in a cute little nurse's uniform, and she had been sure to make certain a little cleavage was on display, "fan service!" she explained, this had the intended effect of causing the boy to blush furiously.

Mari grinned wickedly at his reaction, "So what do you think puppy?" she asked in a sultry voice, the boy stammered nearly incoherent. Mari chuckled handing the boy a glass of water, he lay there for a moment seeming to take it all in.

"How long have I been out this time?" he asked her, Mari sat back down and relayed that he'd been unconscious for three days. Then she brought him up to speed on all the changes that had occurred, the new addition to the apartment and their new neighbours.

The boy took this all in, his eye wandering over Mari, and the girl found her cheeks heating up at his attention, this was the first time he'd openly gazed at her like this. "See something you like?" she purred teasingly, Shinji nodded a sly smile gracing his lips, "Yeah actually I do." He said.

Mari's eyebrows shot up as she realised he was now teasing her, she leaned in close her lips inches from his. There was a pause as she waited to see what he would do, and was pleasantly surprised when he closed the gap and captured her lips. Mari slid her hand to his face stroking his cheek as their lips locked together, the boy was being bold and Mari rather liked that.

Their tongues met in a frantic dance and Mari felt a moan leave her throat, the boy's hand gently wrapping round the back of her neck. The girl was lost in the heady sensation her body alive and aware, by the time they broke the kiss both teens were blushing intensely.

Shinji lay there as if trying to make a decision, his eye fixed on Mari as he seemed to work up the courage for something. Her breathing caught as she wondered and hoped, would her puppy ask her she found herself hoping.

"Mari? Will you go out on a date with me?" the boy asked voice quiet and shy, Mari felt her heart quicken, wondering what had brought on the boys forwardness. She leaned back in stealing another brief kiss, "Yeah! I'll let you treat me to a movie." She answered, and smiled when the boy broke out in a huge goofy grin.

"Oh by the way? This uniform isn't just for show." She said, Shinji leaned back taking in her appearance again and smiled, "You're officially my nurse now then?" he enquired. Mari nodded fluttering her eye lashes at him, the boy's expression once more turned sly "Oh nurse! I have terrible cramp in my feet!" he moaned theatrically.

Mari burst out laughing at this, "Aw! Would the ickle puppy like a foot massage?" she asked with a giggle. The enthusiastic nod he gave her only increased her mirth, as she gently grasped his feet and began kneading them, the boy's eye hooded and a soft moan was strangled from him.

"Welcome back puppy, I've missed you." She said, her voice serious for once. From the entrance to the room came the sound of gagging, Mari turned with a frown on her face as Asuka stood there, the red head pretending to be sick. "Ugh! All this lovey, dovey craps making me want to hurl!" the volatile girl said, but she had a small teasing smile on her face that said she was only joking.

"Yeah hi to you to Asuka." The boy said, but again there was no malice in his words, "so you take over both apartments yet?" Shinji asked smirking. Asuka for her part thrust her nose in the air, "You shall all bow down, before your red headed overlady soon peons!" she declared, her voice effecting a posh imperious tone.

All three teens started snickering before Mari looked at her, "You're in a good mood, who's the lucky guy?" she asked. Asuka smirked before bringing them up to speed on her little dinner date with Kaji, and the fact that she had aced her prior synch record.

It seemed that unit two had responded much more eagerly to its pilot, the red giant apparently had always required wrestling into submission. On this most recent test however, the cyborg had been positively ready to rock from the word go.

Shinji congratulated the girl, but Mari caught the knowing smile on the boy's face, it would seem her puppy knew about something here. Mari let go of his feet, and gently taking his hand began working on that, she planned to get to the bottom of this new development, the incident with the Angel and now this odd turn of events.

Mari was about to ask the boy what had happened on the fleet, however her phone and Asuka's chose that moment to ring, "Angel alert puppy, got to go kick some booty!" Mari said.

Asuka let out an amused snort raising one eyebrow, "You mean watch me kick some booty! Four eyes!" she said challengingly. As they dashed out of the room bickering about who was to get the first kill, neither girl noticed the boys eye change colour to an icy blue, the boy looking up at the ceiling with a determined expression on his face.

* * *

><p>AN:<p>

Took a little longer to get this chapter up as I went back and tweaked the first four chapters, hopefully their a bit more readable.

With regard to Shinji being a Nephilim, not strictly on my plan, I need to make sure that his gift doesn't end up being a get out of jail free card.

Have gone back and added additional clarity on Toji and Kensuke being at the fleet, however they're intended as comedy relief.

While I understand why some people would view Mari as a straight up sex object, its my intent to give her more depth than she was in the movies, while she and Shinji will likely get it on at some point, I'm not writing a lemon here, nor would I get away with one.

hopefully people will stick with me as I am going somewhere with this, next update will be awhile as I'm away from the 18th for a week, but will be bouncing my muse around. (poor muse)

It has been brought to my attention, that Mari's surname is spelt Makinami not Makanami, I have therefore gone back and made the needed change, I assume I got them all but will re read when I get a chance.


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